


Out of the Rubble

by Fauks, vailkagami



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Gen, Its timeline and plot are based off of the video game ICO, M/M, Viktuuri Big Bang 2017, slowburn?, spoilers for the game, they're children, trigger warning - suicide attempt (drowning) chap 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2018-12-06 07:32:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11595879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fauks/pseuds/Fauks, https://archiveofourown.org/users/vailkagami/pseuds/vailkagami
Summary: There are rumors of what is done to the children with horns. They are tied to stones and thrown into the water; they are strapped to pyres and burned on the edges of cliffs for the gods, exiled to a boat on the sea, or simply buried alive and left to choke on soil and worms. Only two things are know for certain about their fates: on their 12th birthday, they are collected by soldiers whose helmets are adorned with the same horned appendages of their victims and none are ever heard from again.In which Yuuri Katsuki is a child whose horns have refused to fall off, whose 12th birthday has arrived, and whose life now rests in the hands of armed strangers.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ****  
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> 
>  
> 
> Author's note: Hello! This was written as part of the 2017 Viktuuri Reverse Big Bang collection. There are 6 chapters and each update will occur twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays the current word count ranges at around 25000 words and is subject to change due to revisions, add ons, etc. Tags will be updated as the fic progresses (if you're not a first time reader of mine, then you know how I roll, haha) but art for the story can be viewed at Vail's[LiveJournal](http://vail-kagami.livejournal.com/203367.html)! We're both on tumblr at[fennec-faux ](http://fennec-faux.tumblr.com/) and [torstai-kilpikonna](http://torstai-kilpikonna.tumblr.com/). This Prompt was all Vail's, I am merely the midwife that helped bring it into the world. Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: suicide attempt via drowning. It's easy to spot, feel free to skip.

There was nothing special about that day. It wasn’t a holiday, not the start of a new year, not a solstice. It was just another day. The afternoon was cool. Fall crippled into Winter and dragged with it faded rays of sunlight, chasing away the mist in vain. The forest was slowly dying, with dulling green leaves furled open and desperate to drink in the light seeping through the canopy of branches above. Vines clawed up exposed stones, and mushrooms leached whatever they could from their thick-barked hosts. It was just another day.

Yuuri never expected his life to end on such an ordinary day. The ground was soft from yesterday’s rainfall, muffling every step the horses took as they traversed through the perishing landscape. He couldn’t help but think of how it complimented the purpose of their journey.

His wrists ached from where they were bound in front of him, the rope digging into his skin and cutting flesh. He gave up struggling an hour earlier when one of the soldiers grabbed at his restless hands and threatened to bind his arms and legs as well. That was the last time any one of them had spoken to him, choosing instead to talk amongst themselves occasionally in a language he didn’t understand.  For the most part they acted as if he wasn’t there.

There was a guard in front of him, two flanking his sides, and one holding up the rear, all on horseback. He shared a horse with their leader, whose status was made known by the horns on his helmet. It was a decoration none of the others shared and Yuuri felt as if he was being mocked.

He had horns too, differing slightly from their leader. His were upturned while the soldier’s horns were down. His were brown while the soldier’s horns were white. He had been born with his, while the soldier could remove the appendages at any time.

This was why he was taken. His horns. Yuuri frowned, glaring at the tail of the horse in front of him. He clenched his fists, willing the tears in his eyes to stay put. He’d already cried too many times in front of these men, he refused to give them any more.

These last 2 months were the most stressful of his life. His 12th birthday had been rapidly approaching, and the people of his village had started to act weird around him. They had once been kind and welcoming, offering him sweets from stalls or engaging him in small talk whenever he ran errands for his mother. The children had been polite and friendly, and the Elders caring.

And then it suddenly changed. His neighbors would glare whenever they saw him. The children stopped talking to him. The Elders were cruel with their words.  Everyone seemed to avoid him.

His mother had tried her best to comfort him, telling him they were scared of a silly superstition. She had never elaborated what it was, only soothed him with her words and silently packed their belongings into bags.

He had noticed more and more of their possessions had gone missing from the house as the days closed in on the 29th. He had seen them show up in merchant stalls or other families’ homes. His sister had told him to ignore it, that ‘Mom didn’t want them anyway.’

And then his father had woken him up in the middle of the night, a week before his birthday. He had waited until Yuuri was as awake as a small child could get before gently testing the strength of his horns. When he had detected no give, he had Mari bundle him up in his warmest clothes and left to gather the sacks that carried what little they had left. Mari had told them they were moving, that the village was lame and there were better people somewhere else.

They had only made it past the baker’s shop when they were caught. The neighborhood watch had suspected his parents’ intentions and kept a close eye on them, waiting for the chance to strike. The Elders had gathered with them, and a wall of citizens from adolescents to elderly had surrounded them. At the time, Yuuri hadn’t known what to be more afraid of: the men and women who would determine his fate or the flames that left the townsfolk with hollow eyes.

His parents and sister had been confined to their hut, kept under surveillance at the orders of the Elders. Yuuri was sent to the community hall where he was bound and shackled to a pillar, displayed out in the open as a warning to the other families with horned children who thought to leave. Everyday, they had pulled at his horns. Everyday, they stayed put. When his birthday came and the horns hadn’t fallen off, the soldiers had been summoned.

This happened 3 days ago. Now, they were miles away from his home and family. He might have had a chance to return home if he had been more aggressive yesterday morning, but now it was too late. The forest was thinning, the breeze picked up, and he could hear seagulls screaming from where they circled above the trees.

His death sounded like the ocean.

There were rumors of what was done to the children, based on nothing but imagination and told to ward off misbehavior. Horned children - ‘and bad boys and girls,’ mothers often insisted - were tied to stones and thrown into the water; they were strapped to pyres and burned on the edges of cliffs for the gods or simply buried alive and left to choke on soil and worms. None were ever heard from again.

When they broke through the trees, the light came as a herald of the inevitable. Yuuri squinted against the blinding rays and looked down, allowing his eyes to adjust to the sudden flare. He shivered when a particularly strong gust of wind blew by and it nearly dislodged his glasses. The soldiers had already warned him that they would not be stopping for a third time if they were to fall. He found it odd that they had even done it the first time it happened. He wouldn't need glasses to see The Void. 

When he looked up, he expected to see a vast expanse of ocean and sky, a clear view of a horizon that the trees hoarded for themselves when he lived at the village. Yes, he knew he would see the line where water met the clouds, and he knew he would see skeletal remains of cliffs eroded by the waves, but he didn’t expect a castle.

It was an overall labyrinth of towers and bridges, all constructed of the same dull brown granite. The bulk of the fortress rested on the other side of a massive gorge that separated the travelers from their destination. The bridge was missing, either destroyed or never built, Yuuri couldn’t say. The void between the island the structure rested on and the mainland where Yuuri’s company stood spanned 60 meters, maybe even more.

From what Yuuri could see, the fortress had been symmetrically built with two square towers on either side of equal height and distance from the front gate, both of which were large enough to be small castles of their own. They were connected to the entrance with walls built similarly to the aqueducts Yuuri had seen in the ruins near his own village, except with much more elegance and crenelations decorating the top.

Beyond the open gate was what Yuuri assumed to be the main building. It was protected by thick walls built to survive war, towering over the thin bridges in front of them. The castle inside loomed over Yuuri and the soldiers, blocking out the sun with a single cylindrical tower. At its base jutted structures riddled with darkened windows, pillars, and flattened roofs. The parapets and guard posts had long been abandoned, leaving it to be protected only by the integrity created by its architects and the surrounding sea below.  

Yuuri knew it was his tomb the moment he looked at it.

They urged their horses to the left, where steps led down to a beaten path jutting out from the side of the cliff they stood on. It zigzagged to the beach hundreds of yards below, littered with tree roots and gravel. The horses’ steps were stable in the face of such precarious terrain, but Yuuri found no comfort in their skill. A part of him wished a horse would stumble, if only so that he could have another soul to accompany him into The Void.

Guilt stung behind his eyes and he looked down. His mother wouldn’t approve of such thoughts.

Halfway down the cliff, the group stopped in front of an outpost built into the cliff’s wall. A soldier dismounted from his horse and walked into the elegantly carved cave entrance. Yuuri couldn’t see much in the pitch black room, only that the walls were built of the same cleanly cut granite. When the soldier reemerged from the dark, he carried in his hands a sword and scabbard. He passed the weapon to the leader at Yuuri’s back and the boy tried his best to keep his gaze forward.

He was to die at the end of a blade? He prayed for a skilled executioner.

Roughly, his shoulder was grabbed and he was forced to turn to the side to look at the sheathed blade in the soldier’s outstretched hand.

“This is not for you,” his jailer said in a thick accent before releasing him and slipping the weapon through a leather strap attached to the horse’s saddle.

Yuuri tried not to think about the sword the rest of the trip down. It didn’t help that the sheath occasionally rubbed against his calf. He wondered what his odds were of cutting the rope off with the unattended weapon, or if he could wield it in both hands. He often helped his father mine resources with a pick axe. He’d be able to hold the sword… right?

He wasn’t given much time to fantasize over an escape. He had waited too long to act and they had quickly reached the bottom of the road, arriving at an empty beach. The men dismounted and tied their horses to naturally formed spire jutting out of the cliff wall. The leader of the group attached the sword to his waist as another lifted Yuuri from the saddle and set him on the ground.

The leader grabbed his bicep and dragged him to a dock a small distance away. He all but threw Yuuri into the skiff and stepped with ease into the rocking boat. He walked to the bow and waited as a second guard seated himself in the back and pulled an oar from the deck.

This was the closest he had been to the ocean. He had seen the blue waves from afar and heard stories of the creatures lurking in the deep depths. Mari had been especially energetic in telling the tales of sailors fighting against storms and monsters at sea, of the treasures they would discover and ships they would plunder. She loved the idea of the ocean, of the promise of travel and adventure it contained.

‘ _We’ll go to the ocean one day. I promise,’_ she had said when he was 6. At the time, her 12th birthday had also been 2 weeks away, and she still had horns stubbornly attached to her head.

 _“But what if the bad people take you away?”_ He had asked, looking with trepidation at the protruding antlers.

“ _T_ _hen I’ll fight ‘em off,’_  came her simple answer.

“ _But what if you can’t?”_

“ _Y_ _uuri, I’d sooner kill myself than let that happen,”  s_ he had snarled, looking with determination at the sky, “ _They can take my toys, my home, my family, but I will be the one to take my life. I will not give them that.”_

That image of her, fierce, angry, antlers long and branching out from her temples, was how Yuuri liked to remember her. It was how he wished he could be now.  

As the shore shrunk in the distance, Yuuri’s focus was drawn by the snapping of fingers near his ear. He flinched and turned, thinking of how Mari would have responded if she had been in his situation. She would have yelled or bitten at the man’s fingers.

“You shouldn’t be sad.” The leader said when he had Yuuri’s attention. He stared blankly up at the gruff man, confusion and fear evident on his face. “You’re one of the lucky ones.”

He struggled to process what he was hearing. Mari would have screamed and snarled. “How?”

“There are other towns that send their children away as early as four. You’re lucky you were able to spend this much time with your family.” He sighed heavily and looked over the water, “Although... I wonder if one could really count that as lucky. Living life, if only for a short while... or not knowing that there was ever a life to live in the first place. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.”

Yuuri felt his temper flare, his own inner Mari seething from the comment and fighting to do something about it. “Why are you telling me this?” Yuuri asked, looking at the water. He had never learned how to swim. He wondered if drowning would be preferable to whatever they had in mind for him. A death was a death, right?

_I will be the one to take my life. I will not give them that._

A rush of adrenaline coursed through his veins. He heard Mari whispering encouragement in his ears. _Picture it, Yuuri: floating aimlessly in the ocean. Wouldn’t that be nice?_

“I don’t know,” the guard admitted, a hand resting on the hilt of the sword, “It was a thought I wanted to share. Maybe I thought it would bring you some comfort.” Yuuri shifted closer to the edge of the boat, under the guise of resting his back against the rail.

 _Not yet, Yuuri._ Mari whispered.

“How many children have you brought here?”

“Me?” he sighed, “Only four others. There are more than that, though, from decades before I was born. Horned children aren’t as common as before. We were surprised to hear that your horns had stayed on this long.”

“Were you born with horns?”

“No.”

_Not yet._

Yuuri dug his heels into the wood, legs tense and ready to push himself over the edge.

“Why do you do this? Why do you hate us?”

The man whipped his head around to face Yuuri as soon as the words left his mouth. His face was obscured by the visor attached to his helmet, but his shock was palpable.

“Hate? I don’t hate kids like you, none of us do.”

Molten hot anger threatened to spill from his eyes. His skin itched for action, any action. His legs twitched.

 _Not yet._ The voice didn’t sound like Mari anymore.

“Then why do you want to kill us?”

“Kill you?” He playfully scoffed, acting as if a child had told him the sky was purple. Yuuri didn’t like the belittlement. “This business with the ropes and restraints is mainly for your own safety. What we do is offer protection.”

“Because children are considered threats if they have horns on their heads?” He could feel Mari’s savage glee carve a mocking smile on his face.

“Not necessarily... monsters come in all shapes and sizes,” the man said absently, his tone implying that his thoughts had traveled elsewhere.

 _Monster_. That was the last straw for Yuuri. That was all they would ever see him as, not as a child cursed with horns. Not as an innocent who had yet to do anything wrong.

_I will be the one to take my life. I will not give them that._

_I will NOT give them that!_

“I will not die by your hand!”

He lurched up and tipped himself over the railing of the boat. The water was freezing, the shock of the cold piercing through his skin like needles akin to the embrace of an iron maiden. He gasped at the sudden drop in temperature, feeling his limbs seize up. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, certainly nothing as cold as this.

His head dropped below the surface and his orifices were flooded with ocean water and bubbles. In inhaling, he got a mouthful of the salty liquid and choked on the water that gushed down the back of his throat. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t breathe _couldn’t breathe!_

His heartbeat pulsed painfully under his skin, in his finger tips, in his throat and chest. His legs kicked uselessly at the water, his bound hands flailing in front of him and struggling to grab at anything to lift him up.

Why was he acting like this? Why couldn’t he be brave? Mari would have been brave, Mari said she would do this.

But Mari wasn’t here. Mari didn’t have horns past her 12th birthday, Mari didn’t know what it was like _to drown_.

He had hoped that he would have been able to focus on his sister and her words in his last moments for some sort of comfort,  but all he could bring himself to think about was the absence of air, the weight of the water around him pulling him down, the distorted sunlight struggling to reach him-

A death was a death, right? Yuuri couldn’t seem to find any comfort in the agency he had in bringing about his own. Death was still death. Death was still terrifying. He looked down at the bottom of the ocean, only able to make out a few moving objects that he hoped were seaweed-

Why would he hope for that? He was dying, he had much more important things to worry about-

He was _dying_. Should he be worrying about anything right now?

Cold, stiff, and scared, Yuuri closed his eyes and breathed in. He was once again flooded with water and instinctively tried to cough it up, a futile effort that brought more pain than relief. Dying _hurt._

His lungs screamed at him to get air, his ears ringing deafeningly loud in the quiet of the water. He felt a rush of a current around him, clinging to him and trying to drag him down as he was propelled upwards.

He closed his eyes, too afraid to see the inevitable overtake him.

But just as quickly as the attempt had happened, it came to an end. The soldier with the horned helmet hauled him back onto the ship and threw him onto the deck of their small skiff. He coughed, finally inhaling the air he needed to expel the death that filled his lungs.

He choked and vomited water, the liquid warm on his freezing hands and chin. The wind chilled him as it blew by, reminding him gently of what he had done, of what he had tried to do. What he almost did.

Should he be upset over the failed attempt? The sword in his peripheral said ‘maybe.’

“You stupid child!” The man roared as he climbed back into the boat, sopping wet from jumping in after Yuuri, “You will not die on my watch!”

Yuuri looked at the sword with trepidation, dry heaving on the deck. He didn’t know how long he had been below the surface, it had felt like hours. In glancing around, he saw that they had hardly moved from their spot; the same rock formation laid a few yards to the right and the fortress remained as a silent observer over their heads.

The leader hit his back a few times, prompting him to hack up more water. The salt left his mouth tasting bitter and feeling dry, and he shuddered at the disgusting liquid that he continued to expel from his body. Tears sprang from his eyes and he curled into himself, wishing for the whole ordeal to be over.

Exhaustion clung to him like a heavy blanket, but he couldn’t shake it off. He dared not to succumb to the temptation of sleep in fear of what unknown would happen next, but the adrenaline was gone. He wasn’t a spiteful teenager with an ironclad resolve and a death wish. He was a little boy, scared and cold and wet, wanting only to go home. He felt helpless. He felt stupid.

“Sleep, child,” the man ordered, taking a blanket the oarman held out and dropping it unceremoniously over his bony frame. Yuuri gritted his teeth, crying tears of defeat and fear and thumping his forehead on the deck out of frustration.

Unwillingly, his vision was the first to go. His consciousness followed soon after.

 

* * *

 

He woke up to the sound of lightning crackling. The sudden thundering had him bolting upright, taking in his environment as fast as he could. Being near sighted and missing his glasses from his earlier attempt at suicide, he was only able to make out his immediate surroundings in the room:

He was on a bridge in a vast hall. The lighting was poor, but he could make out the sound of water somewhere below him. There was a large tower to his right, leading Yuuri to assume that they were somehow under the fortress now. In front of him, the lead guard stood before two large rectangular statues. They looked like roughly carved totems with the figures of hunched horned children engraved into their granite stomachs, their identical faces hidden behind their arms in shame.

The leader was the only other one there, and in his hands he held the sword he retrieved earlier. He had only pulled a third of the blade out of its scabbard, but it flared brightly and crackled. The odd air reminded Yuuri of the charged atmosphere before a storm, and the light shimmered and jumped like lightning.

Initially, the sound was reminiscent of thunder in its echo and amplitude in the cavernous room. There was also a high pitched whine similar to the cicadas found outside of Yuuri’s village, but the more Yuuri listened, the stranger the sound became. He swore he could hear an overlapping whisper of voices, screaming to be heard in a language he couldn’t understand.

The deep grooves in the statues glowed, sending an electric current back to the sword. The stone parted easily for the two, revealing an archway leading into the next room. The man fully sheathed the weapon, effectively silencing the chatter of the light and bringing their surroundings back into the dark. A torch leaning against the wall near the statue provided them a light source of traditional fire.

“I told you the sword wasn’t for you,” the man snapped with annoyance when he noticed Yuuri. He walked to the boy and grabbed a fistful of the back of his shirt and lifted him to his feet. He shoved him forward to the opening and grabbed the torch as they passed.

They entered a cylindrical room. The floor was inlaid with different colored stones in the same muted color scheme as the castle. There were odd symbols on two of the floor panels and Yuuri was forced to stand on one of them. In the middle of the floor sprouted a small dome with a lever to the side and a triangular wooden cut out wrapped around the base. The man stood close to the center, on a thinner floor panel with no distinguishable markings on the ground, and pulled the lever.

The arrow spun until it pointed directly at Yuuri. He startled and nearly lost his balance when the tile he stood on sunk a few centimeters. The ground shook, the sounds of rusted metal and groaning wood clanging together as the floor seemed to move.

It ascended into the pitch black above. Yuuri’s breath quickened and his heart raced. He had never been on ground that moved like this. The closest he could compare it to was the cargo lifts used in the village to transport materials to the 2nd or 3rd floors of buildings. They had never been used to hold humans, though - and there weren’t any pulleys that he could see that were lifting the floor currently.

“How are we moving?” He asked the leader, turning slightly to look at him. The soldier gave no acknowledgement that he had heard the question and remained silent, staring up in the direction they were heading.

Within a few moments, Yuuri could blurrily see another archway in the wall, this time located on the opposite side from where they had entered. He saw the guard shift his feet and put a hand on the lever, anticipating the archway as well.

They came to a rough halt and Yuuri nearly fell over from the stumbling stop of the stone platform. The man put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him forward, softer than before, into the direction of the exit.

In stepping out, all he saw was a massive empty space with two sets of stairs against the wall a few meters in front of him. They led up on either side to an area Yuuri could not see. The room was dimly lit, but when he looked up he was able to spot the underside of another grand stone staircase. Anything higher than that was a blur of softly lit grey and brown.

The soldier approached his side and grabbed his bicep, dragging him along so that they were walking side by side with a torch in one hand and the sword at his hip. In looking at the scabbard, Yuuri realized that the group of soldiers had remained weaponless up until they had stopped to collect the sword.

He stumbled a few times up the steps, unable to keep up with the guard’s strides.

“If you insist on lagging behind, I will carry you myself.”

Yuuri bit back the comeback on the tip of his tongue and looked ahead. Mari hadn’t exactly been helpful in the past, he doubted she would be helpful now. At the top of the stairs was an equally empty and exceedingly large throne room. The length of the room was wide and bare with its bordering walls housing rows and columns of oddly carved pods. Windows that resided a little ways beneath the ceiling provided a soft light to the room. The pods were identical in every way - size, shape, appearance - with the exception of a single capsule on the bottom row to the right. It glowed the same strange light that the sword and the statues earlier emitted.

As they got closer, he was able to make out more details. Yuuri was filled with a sense of dread and anxiety when he realized the guard was guiding them to the steps leading to that husk, and as they aproached the man released Yuuri with a shove forward. He used his newly freed hand to withdraw the blade halfway out of its sheath, shattering their silence. The glow of the pod brightened, outlining the apparent carvings of a man and a woman with a child between them. The sound of a click seemed deafening in comparison to the static released by the lightning-sword, and the shell opened itself to reveal a space the perfect size for a small child.

Inside stood a wooden stock.

These weren’t walls of decorations. They were catacombs stuffed with coffins.

“No…” Yuuri murmured and froze. He felt the guard at his back, felt the shove before it happened, and he did everything he could to limit how far he was pushed.

“Please don’t put me in there!” He begged, falling to his knees to make it difficult for the man to get him inside the coffin, “Please! I haven’t done anything!”

“Stand up,” he ordered, nudging Yuuri forward with his foot. Yuuri shook his head, uncaring of the tears beginning to fall.

“Please, not in there! Don’t lock me in there! Kill me with the sword! Take me back to the ocean and let me drown! Don’t lock me in there!”

“Stand up now!”

“No!”

The soldier leaned the torch against the banister beside them and placed the partially sheathed weapon down, roughly grabbing Yuuri by the horns and hauling him to his feet. He dragged him to the coffin, ignoring the boy’s pleas and cries of pain. He completely withdrew the blade from the scabbard, blinding Yuuri with the light as he tried to carefully cut the rope binding his wrists away. In the struggle, he nicked Yuuri’s palm. Sharp pain subdued Yuuri’s movements, along with the dizzying screams erupting from the blade when it made contact with blood.

The soldier seemed only to hear the fizz of light as it crackled and clanged on the floor. He took the opportunity of Yuuri’s submission to pick him up and toss him inside the coffin. The boy hit his head on the wood when he was thrown in, giving the guard more time to lock him into the stock before he could continue to fight. Yuuri didn’t realize what had happened until the soldier was stepping away and picking the sword back up from when he had dropped it in their scuffle.

“No no no no no, please! Please, don’t!”

“This is for your own good,” the guard answered cryptically.

“Please!”

He held the sword up once more. Bolts of lightning lashed out and snagged onto the edges of the open hatch. The stone groaned from the friction as it slowly lowered back into the place, all the while Yuuri screamed inside and begged to be released.

Through the sole rectangular cut-out in the coffin, he could see the soldier sheath the blade. The soft glow illuminating the grooves outside the roughly carved casket dimmed low, taking with it any last traces of warmth and the hope Yuuri had of escaping.

With one last look at the coffin over his shoulder, the guard stooped to pick up the torch and turned. He left, sealing the horned boy indefinitely in a prison of stone and wood.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are moving slowly, sorry. that's mainly for the sake of exposition and world building, but it picks up towards the end of this chapter. promise!  
> All artwork done by the amazing Vailkagami :D

He was being abandoned; the man was actually leaving him - a _child_ \- behind.

 _But you’re not a child anymore_ , his anxiety swore viciously in his head. _You’re a monster._

The floor began to shake once more, signalling to Yuuri that the man had gone back into the the strange moving room. In the darkness of his coffin, Yuuri felt a bolt of panic shoot down his spine, turning his fingertips cold and his knees weak. The floor rocked like a boat on water and Yuuri thought he felt seawater trickling down the back of his throat.

It was as if he had jumped into the ocean again, and his body violently shivered from the flashback. With a spurt of newfound energy he pulled at the stocks, further injuring his wrists on the wood. He heard the groan of stone shifting and pulled harder. He felt the pod rock back and forth slightly and nearly cried with relief.

There were a few ways this could end. There were the possibilities that the coffin wouldn’t move, no matter what he did, or it would fall. If it did fall, however,  it would either shatter and release him or remain intact.

None of these outcomes changed the fact that the platform would eventually stop moving. He pulled and tugged at his restraints, throwing his body weight into the movement and using his legs to rock the capsule harder. There was a particularly loud thump following a violent shudder in the floor and this gave him enough leverage for his final tug.

The coffin plunged forward. Yuuri’s stomach rolled as his gravity shifted, and he was forcibly thrown around in his stone pod during its tumble. The rock cut into his skin every time he hit the capsule’s walls, his body bruising and his wrists bleeding from the wooden restraints sharp edges.

The shell cracked like an egg, the force of it throwing Yuuri a little ways from the wreckage. The wood splintered on impact, freeing him from its bindings. His head cracked sharply against the floor and incapacitated him for a moment. The hesitation in getting up caused a slab of rock to hit his torso. The wind was knocked out of him, and the combined trauma was enough to render him unconscious.

 

* * *

 

_Rain poured outside. A storm raged in the distance with bouts of thunder roaring in the empty hall. The damp from the weather seeped through the windows at the top of the tower, with cold wind whistling through the halls and shaking loose leaves and debris on the ground._

_Yuuri was walking up a massive spiral staircase built into the walls of the tower. He was almost at the top and could make out the shape of a large birdcage - reminiscent of the kind his mother kept in her kitchen - hanging from the ceiling. As he got closer to the top, he saw black liquid drip from the base of the cage onto the floor tens of meters beneath him. It was...unsettling._

_His legs seemed to carry him forward with minds of their own, forcing him to walk when he wanted to stop. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled and he constantly checked over his shoulder to see if there was anyone following him. A strong gust of wind caught him off guard as it blew by, and he had to press himself against the wall to prevent himself from falling forward._

_When he looked back at the cage, he froze. A strange figure emerged from the black base, shrouded heavily in shadow and appearing to be the silhouette of a young girl. What Yuuri assumed to be long hair flowed freely in the wind as it slowly straightened up into a sitting position, its head cocking to the side as it observed its surroundings. Yuuri shifted slightly, the noise enough to draw the attention of the strange creature._

_He gasped when it snapped its head in his direction, completely unprepared for the striking bright blue eyes that immediately locked onto him. Yuuri froze, unsure of what to do. The creature was locked in a cage, so he should be safe, but...it had risen from the black liquid leaking from the cage’s base. He wasn’t given much time to contemplate his options when he felt something ice cold wrap around his hand._

_Looking down, he saw black mist slither around his fingers. He jerked forward to shake it off, but realized that his legs were caught in the same trap. When he looked behind, he saw a large black portal had appeared in the wall he had been leaning against with dark tendrils of smoke reaching out to latch onto him. He screamed, the sound silenced by another crash of thunder, and looked toward the creature in the cage._

_It was at the bars closest to Yuuri, its arm stretched through the gap and reaching for him as if it were trying to help. Yuuri saw his own panic mirrored in its blue eyes before he felt a pressure against his chest._

_In one last futile attempt to free himself, he yelled and pulled against the black force, reaching out for the creature as well. He was met with resistance, the smoke becoming as strong as chains._

_Time slowed and his vision tunneled as he was pulled back,  the mist stealing his breath and his voice. The darkness closed in on him as he was taken farther away from the tower and its prisoner, those blue eyes fading into nothing more but a speck against a vast expanse of black._

__

 

* * *

 

He awoke to a weight on his stomach and the sensation of pins and needles in his legs. He coughed, the weight sinking further into his torso from the small action. Yuuri opened his eyes slowly and blinked a few times, blearily looking around and down to see what was causing him pain. The stone slab was still on his body and he groaned.

Shoving the weight off was no small feat, and his legs burned as if they had been set on fire from the newly found freedom. He hissed and curled forward to grab at his calf, immediately regretting his decision when his abdomen ached in protest. He laid back down and gritted his teeth, forcing himself to wiggle his toes and bend his legs in order to rid himself of the pain.

When the prickling diminished into a softer throb, he slowly rolled onto his front and stood. Looking around, there was still daylight glowing through the small windows. It appeared as if barely any time had passed, although he felt a grogginess that often accompanied hours of sleep.

Looking to his right, he spotted the debris of his intended resting place. There was now a large gap where the pod had once been cemented, and he looked down at the stone fragments with a sense of satisfaction. He was free from his coffin, but now it was time to find a way out of this mausoleum.

He turned to face the grand staircase where he and the guard had originally come from, but found that the lower room was gone. He hoped it was a trick of the light, what with his glasses missing from his failed suicide attempt, and ran over to see if the staircases were still there.

Gone. They were gone. Strange outlines on the ground alerted him to the possibility that the floor had risen with the movement of the strange platform they had entered on. He ran around the staircase to see if there was a switch, a lever, anything to trigger the movement once more. When he found nothing, he huffed with frustration and turned back to the barren room.

There was a flash of light in his peripheral, where the broken pieces of stone laid scattered on the floor. He approached the pieces with trepidation, afraid that the strange blue light that had sealed him in the stone prison was the same light glinting at him now. Next to a small piece of the pod and a broken part of the bannister, however, were his glasses.

He had no idea how they got there, guessing that the man had been able to grab them when he hauled Yuuri out of the water. Maybe he had felt sentimental and left them behind; or maybe he didn’t want any reminder of what he had done to Yuuri. He quickly put them on, finally able to see clearly for the first time since entering the odd fortress, and looked down to survey his injuries.

With his attention finally being directed to his wounds, they started pulsating and stinging with more fervor than when he had first woken up. There were scratches all along his arms and legs, with red splotches that would soon develop into ugly purple bruises. He had bitten his lip during the fall and could feel blood dripping down his temple.

He could see a few tears in his pale red tunic and the grey trousers he wore were stiff from dried sea water and dirty from the dust on the floor. The blue vest his mother had made for him was thankfully still intact, and he still had his shoes. He brought the bottom of his shirt up and carefully patted the blood off of his face before delicately feeling around the stinging spaces for the extent of the damage. It was just a small cut; he could get by with just a small cut.

 _Now what?_ The question lingered in his mind. He looked back at the staircase and sighed. His way in was gone, sunken into the floor. He looked up to see where the staircase led and saw that it merely went up to a pair of balconies that overlooked the room but clearly didn’t go anywhere beyond that. The other wall was a mirror image of the one he had broken free from, except all of its pods were still intact. He looked back to the empty space his capsule had once occupied, his eyes eventually being drawn to the identical shell on the left.

Were there other children locked in these coffins? There had to be, surely. But did he want to confirm it? Was that a good idea?

The real question was if there _were_ more children stowed away in the walls, would he still be able to leave? Could he live with leaving them behind? Were the children even alive to begin with?

His heart screamed at him to check, to peek through the rectangle cut outs near the tops of the hollow boulders, but his head warned him not to. There was no way those kids were alive, and their corpses were warnings of what could happen if he didn’t leave.

He forced himself to turn away, the pity pulsating in the back of his head in time with the headache that throbbed behind his eyes, and looked in the last direction he had yet to observe.

There was a staircase that led to a small platform. There were three stain-glass windows that decorated the wall behind it, with two more narrower staircases breaking off on either side. They converged onto another floor that housed an enormous stone gate in its back wall. It appeared to be locked with chains, wooden bars, and had some sort of cement sloppily set around its hinges. There was no way Yuuri could get the gate to open.

He looked back up and surveyed the balconies overhead. Maybe there was a way out he could spot from a different angle. He turned around and ran up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time despite the flaring pain in his knees. When he reached the top, he was startled to find a lever sticking out of the wall in front of him, framed on either side by two rusted sconces. The flames they once held had long been extinguished, and Yuuri would have wondered about the actual age of the castle had he not been granted the gift of a switch.

Without hesitating, he ran up and pulled the lever down, struggling a bit against the stiffness of its rusted gears. There was a loud boom that echoed in the hall and the sound of hinges squealing in protest that came from the first floor. He frowned and and went to the bannister, leaning over to see if he could make out the source of the noise. Although there wasn’t any physical change, he did spot a new light source radiating from underneath the stairs he had just ran up.

When he reached the bottom of the steps and looked behind the staircase, he spotted a newly opened door that led to an empty, candlelit room. He gasped, excitement bubbling in his chest from the newly discovered opening; he must have missed this when he went blindly looking around without his glasses.

Running inside, he saw that the room was equally empty, save for a sealed door and another second floor balcony with three large windows on the back wall. A chain from a fallen chandelier hung limply from the center of the ceiling, with the remains of the cast iron structure moved aside to a corner.  Yuuri noticed a few boxes along the wall and went to grab one, dragging it over to the chain and climbing on top.

He slipped the first few attempts he made at climbing up the chain, his palms sweaty from adrenaline, anxiety, and fear. This place looked abandoned but that was no guarantee that he was alone. He knew the guards had left, but could there be more patrolling the halls? How long had he been knocked unconscious for? How loud had the crash been?

 _The noise from the moving room covered the sound,_ he tried to reassure himself. _Guards would have found you while you were knocked out, if there were any here. Focus on getting out!_ He managed to successfully climb the chain on his fourth try and swung to get closer to the balcony before jumping off. In this instance, he was grateful for the ridiculous obstacle courses Mari would put him through to test his stamina.

His crash landing sent him sprawling on the floor, rolling until he collided with the wall. He groaned and sat up, rubbing at the swollen skin around the base of his horns and looking around. There were pots lined up that could boost him up, but he believed he could make the jump to the windows.

He regretted ignoring the pots when he ended up falling through the window frame, landing roughly on his feet and tipping over onto his back. He coughed and looked up, guessing the distance to be three meters, maybe a little less. It didn’t change the fact that it hurt.

After giving himself a second to breathe and let the pain subside, he sat up and carefully rose to his feet. He looked around, noticing immediately the intimidating gate that blocked his path. Peering through the cracks, he could see an archway leading outside to a mist covered bridge. Where the doors of the gate should have been stood four of the same odd statues that had glowed and moved when the guard withdrew the odd sword. Yuuri’s resolve deflated a bit upon the realization that he had no means of moving the stones and he looked up. The top of the gate had been adorned with towering spikes, dismissing any hopes he had of climbing over.

What unsettled him the most were the four sconces around the room: two on either side of the gate’s statues and two on either side of the room. Both illuminated ladders. To the left, Yuuri saw a path up to the top of the gate.

These sconces held burning bundles of branches, which meant someone had to be here in order to tend to them. He could wait on top of the gate and escape when they came, but… even then, that was wishful thinking. There was no telling who had lit these fires. If they had been the guards, then there was a high probability that they wouldn’t be back anytime soon. Yuuri would starve before then. If they had been attended by anyone else… Yuuri wasn’t sure he wanted to stick around long enough to find out.

The ladder to the right led to a staircase that led up and hugged the wall. When Yuuri looked up at the ceiling, he was surprised to find that the room curved around into a cylinder. This was probably the large tower he had seen when he first saw the fortress from across the gorge.

Because the staircase spiraled upwards, that meant the stairs had to pass over the opening on the other side of the gate. If he could find a chain or a cloth - something to tie to the bannister and use to lower himself closer to the floor - he might be able to get around the gate. He ran to the ladder and pulled himself up as fast as he could, taking off into an all out sprint when he reached the top.

It was dizzying at first, both with how the stairs spiraled in a never ending circle and the massive distance made between himself and the first floor. Yuuri was thankful that the stairs resembled more closely to ramps than actual steps, making the journey much easier.  He tried to remind himself not to look down, keeping his eyes locked on the windows that bordered the top of the tower. He could see the bottom of a chandelier and curtains moving from an incoming draft. He smiled to himself, hoping that they would be stronger up close than how they appeared now.

Out of breath, and probably nearing a hundred meters from the floor, he reached a broken section of the stairs. A chain hung down from the top of the section he needed to get to, with bits of ladder strewn around at the bottom. It appeared that the section had purposely been destroyed to prevent people from going any further. The chain, however, countered that obstacle. Yuuri tugged at it a few times, hoping that it would come loose for him to bring back down and use to get to the other side of the gate. When he detected no give, he released a frustrated sigh. He needed to get to the curtains after all.

He climbed the chain and continued up the steps, his run being reduced to a jog with exhaustion kicking in. What concerned him the most, however, was the overwhelming sense of deja-vu that hung on his shoulders the farther up he went.

He had been here before… it was ridiculous to think so, but he could have sworn he had seen all of this before. A gust of wind made the hairs on the back of his neck stand, and he looked over his shoulder to make sure that he was alone. Even the action felt like a repeat, and he came to a stop to look around.

He had never been here before. Something wasn’t right… he looked down and counted eight steps ahead of himself. The lighting was dim and his surroundings were a little hard to see, since the windows scattered around were narrow or small, but if he _had_ been here before, then there was a section of rock missing in a step.

He started slowly, counting as he went and hesitating on the seventh step. Sure enough, there was a large chip in the stone that he would have tripped over if he had blindly continued on.

This wasn’t right. Dread settled in his blood like lead. He looked around slowly, trying to calm himself with loud breaths in and out, in and out. In… and out.

“Is someone there?” he shouted, not entirely sure of what else to do. He felt stupid immediately when the words left his mouth and waited for his echo to die. He paused for a moment. And then another. When all he heard was the whistling of wind past the open windows, ocean waves crashing distantly on the shore and fire crackling in its iron perches down below, he decided to keep moving.

He had only made it a few more meters when he heard something. It was subtle, oh so very quiet, but the distinct differentness of the noise was enough to ring deafeningly loud in the open space of the tower and bring Yuuri to a stop.

It was the sound of movement against metal. Something stirred, shifted, groaning and bringing with it a charge in the atmosphere. Yuuri remained frozen, listening for more. When none came, he gulped and approached the bannister, resting his hands on the cold metal as a way to ground himself as he looked up.

Being closer to the top, he now noticed that the large dark circle hanging from the ceiling wasn’t a chandelier. It was the bottom of a cage. The realization startled him, sending a jolt of fear so cold down his spine that he had to look behind himself to make sure no portal of black mist had appeared.

He dreamed of this. Of a dark creature with long hair and unnatural blue eyes staring at him from the cage. Of black liquid dripping from the base and staining the floor below with an equally dark puddle. Of a malicious force of smoke wrapping around him, constricting him, pulling him back into the dark. Of the same creature reaching out to him, either to ask for help or offer help of its own…

With a hand on the bannister, Yuuri continued to climb up the steps. He let the metal guide him as he kept his eyes glued to the suspended prison, looking for any signs of life within.

As his surroundings got brighter, he was able to make out more details of the cage. He had mistakenly thought it looked like an oversized birdcage, but it had a flat top that mirrored the bottom with sharp spikes sticking out at both ends. Its shadow created a thorned halo, reminding Yuuri of the crudely drawn suns Mari would add to any picture he drew. “To add some light;” her excuse had never changed.

“Hello?” He called out.

It was stupid the first time and even stupider now! He didn’t know _why_ he kept doing that, but he knew he was being foolish in expecting a response. Whatever was in there was probably dead. It could have also been locked away for a good reason. It could have been a beast or a monster.

 _But you were also locked away,_ the voice in his head reminded him. _You’re also a monster._

“Hello?” He tried again. “Is someone there?”

The response was immediate. Two pale hands shot out from beyond his vision and latched onto the bars of the cage. Yuuri jumped back from the abrupt action, taken off guard by the sudden action. Within the seconds following after, the owner of the hands appeared within his vision and pressed their body closely to the edges of the cage. Peering down at him were the same pair of blue eyes that belonged to the creature in his dream.

Yuuri stumbled until his back was flush against the wall. He let out a startled yelp when he remembered the last time - or first time - he had done that and scurried away, falling to his hands and knees on the steps in his hurry.

“Ls, ziv blf zoirtsg?” He heard a voice ask. It was oddly soothing; gentle and adolescent, on the cusp of adulthood. He looked up and once again locked eyes with the same creature he had seen in the strange dream. “Yv xzivufo, gsv hgvkh xzm yv hgvvk.”

He couldn’t understand what the person was saying, but he could now tell that it was a teenaged boy. In a complete contrast from what he saw in his dream, the imprisoned boy was pale - almost pure white. Even the clothes, a shirt and trousers, were of the same stark color with specks of dust here and there from the bottom of the cage. His long grey hair, nearly matching the color of his skin, flowed in the sea breeze that blew in from the shattered windows and his eyes regarded Yuuri with a look of curiosity and a hint of wonder.

“What did you say?” Yuuri found himself asking. The boy frowned.

“R xzm’g fmwvihgzmw blf. Dszg wrw blf hzb?”

This was a language Yuuri had never heard before. “I’m sorry, I can’t understand you.”

“Dszg? R wlm’g pmld dszg blf’iv hzbrmt.” Yuuri looked around, noticing a chunk of steps that had fallen off at some point from the wall a little ways ahead. Unfortunately, the curtains that he needed were on the other side of that space.  The gap was too wide for him to jump, but the windows were low enough for him to reach. Depending on what was on the other side, he could traverse the gap by climbing from window to window to reach the other side.

But what should he do about the boy in the cage? Was the boy an actual monster, or was he like Yuuri? He didn’t see any horns on him, though, but the coloring of his skin, hair, and eyes were odd enough to make him different. How long had he been here? The guilt inside Yuuri made it clear that he couldn’t leave the him behind. He would have to come back for him.

“Nzbyv blf xzm svok nv!” He shouted, and Yuuri struggled to understand, only able to follow the frantic gestures of his hands, “Levi gsviv rh z ovevi! Kfoo rg zmw R’n hfiv rg droo oldvi gsv xztv li lkvm gsv wlli. Rg szh gl wl hlnvgsrmt!”

Yuuri looked to where his fingers were pointing and spotted a lever. He perked up at the discovery.

“Oh! There’s a lever!” He said, pointing as well.

“Bvh! Gsviv’h z ovevi gsviv! Tl kfoo rg!”

“I’m going to pull it!” Yuuri stood up and dashed ahead to one of the windows. With his running start, he jumped and grabbed the frame, wincing slightly when his bruised body impacted heavily with the wall.

“Sfs? Dszg ziv blf wlrmt? Dzrg! Dszg ziv blf wlrmt?!” He ignored the boy’s yelling and hauled his leg over the frame. He hesitated and looked down, grateful to see that there was a balcony that spanned around the entirety of the tower less than a meter drop below from where he was seated. He looked to the boy in the cage, who was staring at him with a wide eyed look of concern and hands gripping tightly at the bars, and smiled.

“It’s a small drop, don’t worry.” he held up his fingers, indicating a small space in between his thumb and forefinger, before turning back and bringing his other leg around.

“Dzrg, dszg ziv blf- _dszg ziv blf wlrmt?! Hglk!!_ ” Yuuri ignored his yelling and dropped down to the balcony.

“Ml ml ml ml ml!” He ran around the side until he reached the window that still had its curtains attached to it. He climbed up the stone and gripped the edge of the frame tightly, pulling himself up and quickly dropping over the side and back onto the steps inside the tower.

“Ls Tlwh! Tlwh, blf’iv zoirtsg!” The boy gasped and put a hand to his chest. “Wlm'g hxziv nv orpv gszg!”  

Yuuri looked up at the curtains and sighed with disappointment. The fabric was too old and too weak to hold his weight. It would rip easily. He’d have to figure out another way.

“Gsv ovevi!” he looked back over at the cage, his gaze following where his finger was pointing before he remembered the switch.

“Oh, right! The lever!” Yuuri quickly approached the switch and gripped the wooden handle, pulling with all the strength he had against its aged components. The switch gave way after a few tugs and the sharp sound of metal clashing with metal rang in the tower. Suddenly, the cage dropped. Yuuri saw the boy latch on tightly to the bars, his eyes squeezed shut as he descended quickly to the ground. Yuuri gasped at the speed it moved and scrambled to pull the lever once more. He had to stop this - at this rate, the cage would crash into the floor.

He had managed to flip the switch once more, bringing the chain to an equally abrupt stop. He ran to the balcony and peered over the edge, grateful to see that the cage was close to the ground.

Well… it appeared to be close. What was important was that it hadn’t shattered on the floor.

“Hold on! I’ll be down soon!” He shouted before running back to the window. He jumped once more and climbed through the frame. The walls around the balcony were far too high for him to look around at the landscape, and he was a little grateful for that. The sheer height at which he was at would probably send his stomach roiling and weaken his resolve.

He climbed through the window he originally came through and dropped down to the steps. The fall had been steeper and his landing rougher, but he was too focused on the pale boy waiting for him to notice. He was able to make a speedy descent down the steps, reaching the bottom in half the time but with equal fatigue.

He went slowly down the ladder and approached the cage, realizing that the boy was still a few meters off of the ground. Even if he jumped, there was still too much space in between for him to reach.

“Ls, gszg dzh hl hxzib!”

Yuuri felt the stranger’s eyes on him and tried his best to ignore the pressure. He looked around, seeing no opening to the cage nor a way to lower it further from this floor. He’d have to go back up again. The thought made him cringe.

He did notice, though, that the top of the cage was level with the top of the gate. He glanced at the ladder to the left. Maybe there was a latch on the top of the cage.

“I have an idea, just hold on.” He went to the ladder and quickly climbed, jogging along the ridge it led to before carefully jumping to the gate’s frame. He walked along the top and hesitated at the area that stood level with the cage, unable to make out much detail in the low light. “Wait a moment.”

“Dszg ziv blf wlrmt?” He ignored the apparent inquiry and carefully kneeled down to pluck a torch from a bundle of burning wood in one of the sconces. With the light in hand, he headed back over to the cage. It was a little too far away for him to make his observations. He’d have to jump.

With a running start, he managed to land unsteadily onto the top. With the sudden added weight and the age of the chains, one of the links snapped. The metal prison dropped, flinging Yuuri and his torch off of the top and sending them sprawling onto the ground. What Yuuri didn’t see, while he was too distracted with the large bump that was undoubtedly forming due to his constant hits to the back of the head, was the door to the cage spring open.

It had fortunately landed upright, the fall temporarily displacing the pale boy onto his side. When Yuuri sat up and looked forward, he saw the boy get to his feet and walk through the opening. His arms were spread as he inhaled deeply and twirled.

“Bvh! Dv wrw rg! Sld mrxv rg rh gl yv uivv!” He opened his eyes and looked at Yuuri, quickly approaching him and kneeling beside him when he was close enough. Being this close, Yuuri realized that his eyes weren’t a cold, inhuman blue as he had seen in his dream. They were much warmer, like his mother’s favorite dress or the seawater outside.

He shuddered at the revelation. He didn’t want to think about the ocean for a while.

“Wrw blf dzpv fk rm z xztv, gll? R wlm'g pmld dszg szkkvmvw, lmob gszg R dlpv fk z uvd nlnvmgh ztl rm gszg dvriw hrgfzgrlm,” he gestured with his head to the cage behind him, “Uli gsv olmtvhg grnv, r bvoovw uli hlnvlmv gl svok nv. R slmvhgob wrwm'g gsrmp zmblmv dzh sviv fmgro blf hsldvw fk. Gszmp blf, yb gsv dzb! R wlm'g pmld dszg R dlfow szev wlmv ru rg dzhm'g uli blf!”

“I’m sorry,” Yuuri said slowly when he thought the boy had finally finished speaking, “I have no idea what you’re saying.”

“Sn? R xzm'g fmwvihgzmw blf.” He cocked his head to the side and frowned. “Ru Yakov dviv sviv, sv’w yv zyov gl gizmhozgv. Ls dvoo, R pmld dv xzm zg ovzhg rmgilwfxv lfihvoevh,” the boy stopped and pointed at himself, eyes staring deeply into Yuuri’s, “Viktor.”

Yuuri watched him for a moment, confused. When he didn’t say anything else, he hesitantly pointed at him and repeated, “‘Viktor?’”

He nodded vigorously. “Viktor.”

“‘Viktor…’” he repeated once more before it clicked. “Oh! ‘Viktor!’ Your name!”

The boy seemed to understand the revelation. He smiled broadly and nodded. “Viktor! Bvh!”

“Yuuri.” He said, pointing to himself in the same manner. ‘Viktor’ copied the action.

“‘Yuuri?’”

He nodded. “Yuuri.”

Viktor’s smile softened. “Gszmp blf, Yuuri,” he stood and dusted himself off, offering a hand out for the other to take. “Mld, ovg’h urmw z dzb lfg.”

Eerily familiar tendrils of black smoke wound themselves around Viktor’s waist. Yuuri’s eyes widened with horror, recalling the dream he had earlier, and he pointed at the mist. “Viktor!”

He looked down with a frown and lazily swiped at the mist. It reformed just as quickly as it had been dispersed and Viktor was suddenly lifted off of his feet by a blurred silhouette of a man. The figure looked like oil smeared into the apparent shape of a person, adjusting Viktor so that he was thrown over its shoulder. It acted as if Yuuri wasn’t there and turned, heading for a dark portal bubbling on the ground a few meters away.

“Yuuri, svok!” Viktor’s cry snapped Yuuri out of his frozen stupor and he scrambled to his feet. He looked around for something, anything, to help him ward the… the _thing_ away. He grabbed the torch he had dropped earlier and ran after the two, swinging the long wooden branch with a yell into the side of the creature.

The sudden hit was enough to drop Viktor, and he scrambled to get behind Yuuri as he continued to beat away the smoky silhouette. It took three hits for the creature to fall back and dissolve into the floor, the portal following shortly after by shrinking in size and fading in color.

The two remained silent for a moment, both breathing heavily and tensed, waiting for more to come. When it appeared that they were safe - at least for the moment - Yuuri relaxed his shoulders slightly and turned to Viktor. “Are you hurt?”

Viktor gasped and ran to Yuuri, his hands moving quickly between cupping his cheeks, turning his arms side to side, prodding at his chest and stomach for wounds, and running his fingers through his hair and around his horns for any signs of bumps. His fingers were cool to the touch, in a way that soothed the inflamed skin instead of chilling him to the core.

“Blf’iv sfig! Dsb wrwm’g R hvv gsrh yvuliv?!” He gently ran a fingertip over Yuuri’s swollen bottom lip, his expression full of concern, before firmly gripping either side of Yuuri’s head. The hold was gentle enough for Yuuri to pull away if he wanted to, “R xzm urc gsrh, qfhg trev nv z nlnvmg.”

He stared intently at the boy, brows furrowed in concentration and biting his lip. Yuuri frowned back, unsure of what was happening or why. “Uhm...Viktor?”

He didn’t say anything. He continued to stare at Yuuri, unsettling him slightly.

“Viktor?”

“R...R wlm’g fmwvihgzmw,” he slowly pulled away from Yuuri and stepped back, looking at his hands as if they were covered in blood, “Blfi dlfmwh hslfow szev svzovw... R wlm’g fmwvihgzmw...”

He turned and walked away from Yuuri, heading to the odd stone statues that blocked the gate. Yuuri watched him for a moment, confused, before scrambling to follow. He held the extinguished torch firmly in his grip.

Viktor stopped directly in front of the stone statues and held his hand out. For a moment, nothing happened.

And then, suddenly, light sparked from his palm. The carvings glowed in the exact same way as they had with the strange sword and the stones groaned. They shifted, moving out and away from the entrance to allow the two boys an unhindered path through the gate.

Viktor looked down at his hand, the frown still in place. “Gszg dlipvw... yfg... gsrh wlvhm'g nzpv hvmhv...“

“You did it!” Yuuri ran up beside him and looked at the stone statues dumbstruck. “I don’t know how, but you did it!” His gaze flickered to Viktor and his hand before he stepped forward, dashing for the archway in the other wall. He had just reached the opening when he realized Viktor wasn’t with him. Turning around, he saw that the boy was still staring at his hand.

“Viktor,” he called and ran back to him. He looked up upon hearing his name, seeming a little distracted as Yuuri approached and grabbed his hand, “I helped you escape, now you help me. Let’s go before those… things come back.”

“Yuuri…“ he allowed himself to be tugged along by the horned boy across the room. When they walked through the archway, they arrived at the start of a bridge.

“Oh, no,” Yuuri groaned with dismay and went to the edge, peering over the side at the ocean far below them, “I thought we were on the bottom floor.”

“Yuuri!” he looked over at Viktor, who was smiling brightly and gesturing excitedly at a stone bench with odd carvings engraved into the granite. “Gsrh droo svok! Xlnv sviv!”

“I think we should stay away from things like that…” he stated with weariness, not wanting to spend too much time around items that glowed. Even now, in close proximity with Viktor, it appeared to be emitting faint rays of light.

“Yuuri,” Viktor marched to him and grabbed his bicep, unaware of the way Yuuri winched from pain as he dragged him towards the stone bench. He sat Yuuri down on the rock and moved to sit beside him. The moment he came in contact with the stone, it glowed and Yuuri shot out of his seat.

“No, Viktor, I’m not sitting on that!” He objected with pleading look. Viktor seemed to pout and patted the seat once more.

“Yuuri, kovzhv. Gsrh droo svok, R kilnrhv. Ovg nv svok blf.” Yuuri hesitated and shook his head.

“No.”

“Yuuri…”

“Please, Viktor, let’s go.” he gestured to the bridge in front of them. Viktor glanced to where he was pointing and shook his head, a stubborn set in his jaw and a cool look in his eyes conveying that he would not move.

Yuuri felt conflicted. There was no way he could leave Viktor behind, not in a castle that appeared to be a tomb for horned children. Two minds would work better than one in unknown territory… and Victor seemed to have a strange power that moved the stones… Yuuri needed him.

“Okay… fine…”

Viktor seemed to perk up when Yuuri moved closer to the bench. He sat down, holding the torch with both hands in a death grip as he glanced anxiously at Viktor’s triumphant expression. “Now what?”

“Tl gl hovvk,” Yuuri’s frown deepened at the foreign words and Viktor made a gesture with his head and flattened palms. “Hovvk.”

“You want me to sleep?”

“Hovvk”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He shook his head. Viktor pouted again. “We don’t have time for this.”

“Hovvk, Yuuri. Blf droo uvvo yvggvi.”

He sighed at the persistence of the other boy and closed his eyes. Fatigue weighed heavily on him like a wet blanket, anchoring him in place. He tried not to think about the glowing stone or how it warmed his body. He tried not to think about Viktor’s intense stare that he could feel on his skin.

Instead, he thought of his family. Of his mother and her wonderful cooking and kind words; of his father and his gentle tone and warm hugs. He even thought of Mari and her laugh, of how she looked that summer evening weeks before her 12th birthday, filled with determination and head held high, horns sprouting from her temples and raised to the sky as if to challenge the Gods that seemed to have placed them there.

He dreamt of summer festivals and pork cutlet bowls, unaware of the tears streaming down his cheeks or Viktor’s cool fingers running through his hair.


	3. Chapter 3

Yuuri jolted awake at the flash of a nightmare. He sat up quickly, trying to shake off the fading images of Mari sinking below the water. A hand on his shoulder startled him and he jumped to his feet, backing away with his heart beating wildly. Victor stared back with equally wide eyes, his hand frozen in mid-air and his mouth slightly open.

“Ziv blf... rh vevibgsrmt zoirtsg?” He asked softly. Yuuri was struck with homesickness at the foreign words. He just wanted to be home with family he loved and people who could understand him when he spoke. But his family was probably long gone by now… and those people? They’d sooner kill him than converse.

“Let’s go,” Yuuri picked up the extinguished torch from where he had dropped it in standing from the stone chair. He held his hand out for Viktor to take, waiting quietly for him to realize what he wanted to do. Viktor still had a frown on his face – from concern? Annoyance? Yuuri couldn’t tell – and he stood, linking his hand with the other. Yuuri gave a brief squeeze before tugging him forward.

Upon crossing the bridge, they were faced with two stone statues similar to the ones that had reacted to Viktor in the previous room. Yuuri could see a faint glow in their markings that got brighter the closer they were to the rocks, so he stepped to the side and released Viktor’s hand to let him deal with the door.

What had happened before occurred again. There was a glow, a spark, thin strands of lightning reaching out to grab at the pale boy. It pulsed for a few waves before dying out, causing the stones to shift aside and reveal a closed door. On the ground before it was a tile elevated slightly above the surrounding ground level. Yuuri examined it wearily and gently tapped it with his foot, pulling back immediately when he noticed it had sunk a little under the weight. This could be a trap door.

Viktor placed a hand on his shoulder and gently moved him aside. With a large, manic smile in place, he jumped and landed heavily on the tile. Yuuri gasped and cried out, reaching to catch him before he fell, but the tile had stopped when it became level with the rest of the floor. The door before them opened and Viktor chuckled at the boy’s reaction.

“Gsvhv grovh ziv hxzggvivw zoo levi gsv xzhgov,” He jumped a few times on the stone, causing the door to fall and rise each time.

“Stop that!” Yuuri hissed in response, “Don’t be so reckless!”

“Ls? Dviv blf zuizrw gszg R dlfow yv sfig?”

“Let’s go!” Yuuri marched inside and stopped as soon as he was able to take in their surroundings. Based on the outline of stairs on a wall, the large pots and bounders lying around, and two tiles of a similar kind scattered on either side of the room, it became apparent that this was a puzzle of some sort.

Yuuri hated puzzles.

Just as Viktor had walked in and the door shut behind him, a large black spot appeared on the ground on the other side of the room. Yuuri gripped his torch tightly and shifted his feet, trying to steel himself against his anxiety as the inky puddle got bigger.

From the void crawled out the figure of a man, its form comprised of black wispy smoke as it clawed against the floor and rose to its feet. Following shortly behind it were four large shadow creatures that took on the forms of spiders. They scurried along the floor and climbed up the walls, keeping themselves in the shadows of the room as the humanoid threat looked around.

Yuuri knew that striking now, while the other was still trying to ascertain his bearings, was his best option. He swallowed his trepidation the best he could, exhaling deeply, and charged with the torch raised like a pick axe.

He cried out when he brought the branch down, the creature falling to its knees upon impact. Yuuri reeled back and struck again, this time swinging it from the side. It sprawled onto the floor and Yuuri took this chance to hit it three more times in the back. His fourth strike rang dully against the stone, the body of the shadow dissipating and seeping into the cracks of the stone floor.

Yuuri straightened up and turned to find that Viktor was busy fending off the black spiders. He kept kicking at them and shooing them away. When he noticed Yuuri was staring he sent im an exasperated look and motioned to the creatures.

“Dszg ziv blf wlrmt? Sfiib!” Yuuri found himself smiling at Victor’s annoyance when he realized the spiders were harmless. He jogged over and swung a few times, clearing them away easily with the torch. Viktor squeezed his shoulder with gratitude and pointed at the circle on the other side of the room, the two watching as the black portal shrunk and faded away once its monsters had been defeated.

Left alone once more, Yuuri looked back at the two odd tiles and the large stone boulder between them.

“Do you know how to solve this?” He asked half-heartedly, walking to the section of the room the tiles and boulder were located and examining the stone.

“R szevm'g hvvm gsrh yvuliv...” Viktor seemed to respond in his strange language, “Gsrh nfhg szev yvvm zwwvw dsrov R dzh hovvkrmt. Dszg dzh Yakov gsrmprmt?”

Yuuri stood on one of the tiles. It sunk until it was level with the floor before stopping, but there seemed to be no obvious change in the room.  He looked at the other tile and walked to it, repeating the process and getting the same result.

“Hey,” He called out after a minute of thinking, “can you stand on that tile over there?”

“Dszg?” Viktor frowned and looked to where he was pointing. “Bvh, R hvv rg. Dszg zylfg rg?”

When he made no move, Yuuri gestured again with a little more enthusiasm, “Stand on that.”

“Bvh, rg'h gsv hznv zh gsv lmv yvuliv,” Viktor walked to it. Yuuri relaxed slightly from the compliance before rolling his eyes when Viktor proceeded to tap at it with his foot.

“No! Stand on it – Ugh!” He walked to Viktor, leaning the extinguished torch against the boulder as he passed. He grabbed Viktor by the shoulders and bodily moved him so that he was standing on the tile. “Stay!” He motioned with both hands for him to not move and walked back to the other tile.

Nothing happened, even with both of them standing on the weird elevated stones. Yuuri huffed with frustration and moved away in order to observe the tiles from a distance. Viktor remained quiet from his perch on the stone, looking at Yuuri expectantly as his hands twirled the ends of his long hair.

Was there not enough weight on the stones? He considered when he stared at the boulder. Maybe he could move the boulder to one tile and he and Victor could stand on the other. Would that work?

He walked back to Viktor and grabbed him by the hand. This rock was far too heavy for him to move by himself.

“Help me push,” he said and let go once they were in front of the stone. He picked up the stick and set it aside on the ground before leaning against the boulder and pushing with his shoulder, his feet sliding on the ground from the effort. Viktor caught on quickly and joined him, placing both hands flat against the rock and pushing.

Little by little, the stone shifted under their ministrations. Yuuri felt sweat on the back of his neck and a bruise forming on his shoulder before he finally looked down to see what progress they had made. He froze when he spotted yet another tile half way under the boulder.

He felt a hand swat at his shoulder and looked to see Viktor glowering at him with disapproval.

“Dsb ziv blf hglkkrmt? R xzm'g yv gsv lmob lmv wlrmt zoo lu gsv dlip.” He whined and motioned for Yuuri to join him. Yuuri nodded, still unsure of what he had said, and resumed their efforts in moving the stone.

They had managed to shift it another two feet when the ground below them moved. The tile trapped under the stone, now under their feet, raised, and with it came stairs jutting out of the walls. Viktor looked with surprise at the hidden tile and glanced at the steps pushing out from the walls.

“Dvoo... R nvzm... Dv wrw rg?”

“Let’s move on,” Yuuri picked the torch back up and waved Viktor to join him as he approached the steps. “There might be more of those monsters coming. We have to leave.”

Viktor caught up to him quickly on the stairs, and Yuuri tensed when he felt Viktor slip his hand into his own. He looked over his shoulder at the taller boy, who merely smiled and waited for him to continue. He got over his initial hesitation quickly, giving Viktor’s hand a reassuring squeeze – for himself? For Viktor? – before facing forward once more and continuing up the stairs.

 

* * *

 

In the few hours of their travelling, Yuuri learned a lot about Viktor.

  1.       He had no upper body strength.



There were chains scattered all around the fortress, seeming to be in every room they walked through. Sometimes, they were helpful in moving on to the next room. Other times, they were completely unnecessary and could be ignored.

Yuuri had little difficulty climbing these chains. Victor couldn’t hold on even if his life depended on it – and it had on several occasions. Yuuri always had to create an alternative route up for his companion to take, and it always seemed to spur on the arrival of the strange black portal. Usually, Yuuri managed to set up the escape route for Viktor in time for him to leave before the first creature left the smoking puddle, but this never seemed to matter because:

  1.       He couldn’t jump.



Yuuri always had to haul him over the ledges. Viktor was tall, but that was his only saving grace. The height on his jumps were terrible. Yuuri often found himself with half his body over the ledge in order to be able to grab on to him.

There were even a few times when he had to use his scarf as a makeshift rope in order to help Viktor up to the ledges. They learned early on that it was much easier for them if Viktor had the scarf tied around his wrist, so Yuuri made him wear it so that they didn’t have to keep unwrapping and rewrapping it.

At first, Yuuri had been frustrated and angry with Viktor; however, there had been a moment where Viktor had fallen when a bridge had collapsed under him (luckily Yuuri was able to catch him). The sudden close encounter with death startled him, and he needed a moment to recover from the shock. When he had been lying on his back, eyes closed and breathing heavily, Yuuri could see his ribs and other bones jutting out from his chest.

In that moment, he was able to really observe Viktor for the first time since meeting him. He hadn’t realized how malnourished and scrawny he had been. Almost immediately, he had felt bad for being angry with him; that was probably the explanation behind the first two observations, as well as his third:

  1.       He couldn’t run very fast.



That was an understatement. He couldn’t run. Period. Yuuri found that they moved much faster if he was holding hands with him, that way he’d be able to drag him along at a pace more fitting for the urgency of their situation. This, however, meant having to stop more often at the weird stone benches Viktor insisted on using.

If Yuuri had his way, they’d be moving non-stop. However, Viktor had blatantly stopped and sat on the ground when Yuuri refused to sit on the bench again. Yuuri had tried reasoning with him the best he could with their language barrier, even tried to drag him and threatened to leave him (only to come back minutes later and find that Viktor hadn’t moved from his spot on the ground).

He’d begrudgingly admit that sitting on these odd chairs did help him feel refreshed and rested, but he was still wary about their glow. Whatever power was in them seemed to react at Viktor’s presence, and it was a shame that Viktor couldn’t seem to harness this energy because:

  1.       He couldn’t fight.



Whenever the black puddles of mist appeared and the creatures crawled out, Yuuri was the only one who fought. Viktor did his best to run away from them, but there had been far too many times where he had been picked up and was brought to the portal. Yuuri always managed to save him just in time, but he felt frustrated that Viktor didn’t seem to do anything to fight them off.

He had tested this once. He wanted to see if Viktor was just using him and had refrained from fighting diligently to see what would happen if Viktor had gotten close to the portal, and he immediately regretted it.

There was real, tangible fear in Viktor’s eyes whenever the smoky beasts came. Viktor did try to fight back whenever he was lifted and taken, but the tendrils of smoke were persistent in their chaining of the pale boy. Yuuri noticed Viktor would kick and stomp away the creatures that were smaller than him, but any of the humanoid monsters that were his height or taller seemed to petrify him. He would stop, his fear freezing his body and silencing his voice, which really showed how affected he was by these monsters because:

  1.       He loved to talk.



After they left the first room, Viktor was talking nonstop. Truly, he was always chattering and gesturing to something, consistently providing a commentary only he could understand. There were times when Yuuri could tell that he was asking a question based on the inflection of his words. When this happened, Yuuri would look at him and mutter something random in his own language to appease him.

Usually, he’d say “We should hurry,” or “We have go up there,” but there were also times when he would talk about his family. In a particular room that involved three levers, a chain, and a box,  Yuuri ended up telling the story of how he and his sister adopted a puppy and his mother’s reaction when they brought it home in response to a question he couldn’t understand. The tale made him smile, but he was quickly snapped out of the memory when Viktor spoke up.

He didn’t know what he had said, but the look on his face – the warmth in his expression – was enough for Yuuri.

And then he went right back to talking, effectively killing whatever reminiscent mood had been there as Viktor appeared to laugh at his own private joke and point at a wall.

In exiting this room, they found themselves outside once more. Yuuri squinted against the bright sunlight that had reappeared from behind the clouds and looked around.

Behind them was the doorway to the room they just left. The view they now faced was that of a long, bricked path with walls 20 meters high on either side. Lush green grass grew on either side of the path, with stone columns housing unlit sconces formed from aged, wrought iron pieces. At the end of the path was a large, open stone gate with a view of the mainland just beyond the gorge.

This was their way out.

“Viktor!”  Yuuri shouted and turned to him with a broad grin, pointing with his sword at the entrance, “Look! We found the exit!”

“Ls, ollp! Gsv nzrmozmw! Gszg'h dsviv blf'iv svzwvw, irtsg?”

“Come on! Let’s go before any more of those weird black portals appear!” He grabbed Viktor’s hand, tightly gripping it with excitement, and ran down the path.

The moment they passed between the first set of stone pillars, however, the gate shifted. The weight of it caused the ground to rumble and Yuuri hesitated. It only took a moment for him to realize what was happening and he picked up the pace. The doors were closing.

“Dszg? Dsb ziv gsvb xolhrmt?”

“Let’s go! We have to hurry!”

They had passed by three more sets of the pillars and were a mere six meters away when Viktor fell. Yuuri came to a halt, looking back forth between the gate and Viktor with reluctance. If he continued running, then he could make it through the gap before it closed… but that meant leaving Viktor behind.

He gritted his teeth and grunted with frustration. He turned and ran.

He was sure there would be another way to get over the gate.

“Viktor, are you alright?” He asked when he approached the boy, putting down the torch to help Viktor up and check for any injuries. He had scraped his elbow and knee. Yuuri noticed for the first time how damaged his bare feet were.

“Ls, R'n urmv,” he drawled in the foreign words, “R wlm'g pmld dszg szkkvmvw... rg uvog zh ru R szw ifm rmgl z dzoo qfhg mld. R xlfowm'g nlev zmb ufigsvi.”

“Did you trip on something?” Yuuri looked at the ground behind him, unable to see any unleveled bricks in the path. This was a finely crafted fortress, Viktor probably fell because he had been weak.

“Hlnvgsrmt'h mlg irtsg sviv.” Before the older boy could say anymore, a hand rested heavily on his shoulder. Yuuri jumped at the sudden appearance of the stranger behind him and stumbled back, pulling Viktor along with him as he scrambled to grab his battered torch. He tugged Viktor so that he was the one standing between the cloaked stranger and the pale teen, weapon drawn and his hands slightly shaking from the surprise appearance.

The man had appeared out of thin air. In the amount of time it took for Yuuri to blink, the stranger had materialized behind the taller boy. Observing him now sent a chill down Yuuri’s spine. His face was stern and wrinkled, the cloak he wore made of the same odd black smoke that the monsters chasing them were comprised of. The shadowy mist stretched to reach them, and Yuuri moved so that he and Viktor were standing in direct sunlight – if only just to make himself feel a little safer. There was a shift in his eyes, the subtle twitch changing his expression from indifferent to irritated in a split second.

“Vitya,” the older man spoke, his frown deepening as he ignored Yuuri’s presence and stared down the paler boy. Yuuri glanced over his shoulder, his confusion thickening when he saw the bright smile on Viktor’s face, “Dszg ziv blf wlrmt?”

“Yakov! Gszmp tllwmvhh blf'iv sviv!” He gingerly pushed Yuuri aside, giving him a reassuring smile before approaching the man, “Hl nfxs szh szkkvmvw zmw R szev hl nzmb jfvhgrlmh! Yfg xlfow blf urihg tizmg nv gsv trug lu srh ozmtfztv hl gszg R xzm hkvzp drgs Yuuri? Dv xzm lmob tvg hl uzi drgs szmw nlgrlmh zmw klrmgrmt.”

“Yuuri…” Upon hearing his name, Yuuri stiffened and straightened his posture slightly. How did Viktor know this man? Was he a friend or enemy? And why did he have a similar appearance to the creatures trying to kidnap Viktor?

“Bvh, gsrh rh Yuuri! Sv dzh prmw vmlfts gl svok nv lfg lu gsrh dvriw xztv R dlpv fk rm - wl blf pmld zmbgsrmt zylfg gszg? Sld R tlg gsviv? Rg dzh lww-“

“Viktor, vmlfts.” He silenced Viktor with a motion of his hand, his gaze now shifting to appraise the horned boy akin to a soldier sizing up his opponent. “You… Yuuri… you’re the child that ran from the grand hall.”

He froze upon hearing his native language being spoken by the stranger. The words came heavily accented, but he understood them all the same. “Are…are you the one putting children in those coffins?”

He frowned slightly with distaste, as if hearing what Yuuri said had offended him.  “You’re the one who has been dragging my nephew all around the fortress.”

Yuuri nearly lost his grip on the torch. “Nephew?!”

“He is not like you. He is not part of your world. He would not survive if he left,” He stopped and considered the smaller boy with a tilt of his head, his eyes narrowing, “You wouldn’t survive, either. I will offer you a choice: Return to my care or leave. However, both mean leaving Viktor behind.”

“R dzmg gl hkvzp gl srn gll! Dszg ziv blf hzbrmt?” Viktor looked at Yuuri, his gaze softening slightly upon seeing his distress before sending a fiery glare to the shadow-cloaked man, “Dszg ziv blf gvoormt srn?! Rg*h xovziob fkhvggrmt srn, hglk rg!”

“R zn trermt srn z xslrxv gl ovzev li hgzb.” The man glanced at him.

“Sv lyerlfhob dzmgh gl ovzev! Ovg srn tl!”

Yuuri felt distraught. Whoever this man was – Viktor’s uncle, apparently – was allowing him the option to leave… possibly. There was no guarantee that he’d keep his word and let Yuuri walk out of here alive. What if there was an ambush waiting for him in the forest? What if those soldiers were sent out to hunt him down again? And what did he mean when he said Yuuri would not survive? Was that a threat?

Leaving also meant abandoning Viktor. Viktor, who he had found locked away in a cage dangling from the ceiling in one of the tallest spires of the fortress, who was so weak and so malnourished that it was a miracle that he was still standing, who was being hunted by shadow-like creatures of all shapes and sizes, whose ‘uncle’ seemed more annoyed to see his ecstatic nephew than happy and had a clear connection with the beasts stalking the castle’s shadows and chambers.

If this man could bury alive children as young as four in these strange coffins, then what could he do to his own apparent family?

“I don’t know what you’re planning with Viktor,” he started, “but I’m not leaving him here with you.”

Viktor looked back and forth between the two as the stranger narrowed his gaze, oblivious to the bold declaration made by the child. The stranger's lips curled back into a snarl and the atmosphere seemed to pulse and churn around him. In a final act of dominance, he released a wave of energy that knocked both Viktor and Yuuri onto their backs.

“Then you will not leave!” His final decree thundered around them in the walled space, his words echoing and rumbling the ground as the stone gate behind them seemed to lock with a click of finality.

Yuuri propped himself onto his elbows, light headed and looking around to see where Viktor had fallen. His torch was still in his hand, and Viktor was sitting up just as stiffly as Yuuri felt. The stranger, however, was gone. The only evidence to indicate he had even been there were a pair of scorched footprints left on the tiles.


	4. Chapter 4

There was a shift in Viktor’s behavior after that. He had been the first to recover and got to his feet, helping Yuuri up and making sure he wasn’t injured. He had then looked at the gate and observed the two tall globes on either side of the doors, speaking to Yuuri in the same foreign gibberish and motioning to them.

“Dv mvvw gl xszmmvo gsv vmvitb hglivw rm gslhv gdl gldvih rmgl gsvhv tolyvh.”

“Those spheres are important?” Yuuri asked and Viktor nodded vigorously when Yuuri pointed to them.

“xlnv drgs nv,” he linked their hands and pulled Yuuri away toward the door they entered through, “gsviv ziv ozwwvih sviv.”

“We just came from there!” Yuuri tried to reason – if only to create the illusion of conversation for the sake of comfort – but his protest fell on deaf ears.

To Yuuri’s surprise, they found ladders and were able to make their way through a labyrinth of corridors, rooms, and bridges. 

The next hour passed quickly. The sense of urgency instilled in Yuuri made what was once mundane extremely complicated. His anxiety pushed him to move faster, fight harder, even lose his patience a few times with Viktor. 

There he was, sulking, and dragging his feet while Yuuri had to do all the work. He had to push boxes into place to help him advance in the labyrinth, he had to lower chains, haul him over obstacles, he had to beat off shadow creatures and-

That wasn’t fair to say, though. Yuuri was quick to get upset at him, but he was also quick to feel guilty about it. Viktor was trying his hardest to keep up. Yuuri could see it in the red on his face, the heaving in his chest, the sweat staining his clothes. He was leading the way more often than not and he was always watching Yuuri’s back. There were quite a few times where Yuuri was so distracted with unleashing his stress into the back of a black misty spider that he wouldn’t notice one of the behemoths creeping up behind him. Viktor usually (tried) to save the day by smashing a chair over it or jumping onto its back. That usually resulted in him being carried away, but the noise was always loud enough to draw Yuuri’s attention. 

When they had managed to light the first orb in the first tower, Yuuri felt an immense weight lift from his shoulders. This was progress; tangible, physical progress. 

When he looked at Viktor, he could see the same look in his eyes. The older teen returned the sentiment with a weak smile, reaching out and squeezing his hand in a show of mutual joy.

They both looked down at the beam of light that shot out of the opening to their left, watching the trails of white and blue travel away and puncture into the sphere’s above the gate. The door to which it belonged shimmered gold and glowed faintly. 

“Lm gl gsv mvcg gldvi,” Viktor murmured to Yuuri, tugging his hand as a prompt to follow. Yuuri allowed himself to be pulled to a doorway next to the opening where the light was streaming out of the room, finding that Viktor had taken him to a bridge that connected the two towers and bordered the top of the gates. 

“Oh, wow… “ Yuuri breathed when he saw the mainland from across the ravine. From their new vantage point, they towered over the trees, looking on for miles at the vast expanse of forest greens, ocean blues, and the peaks of grey and white mountain tops in the distance. The sky was clear and the small black forms of birds dotted the sky. Yuuri imagined he could see the smoke from his village in the distance. 

“Gsv gldvih ziv xlmmvxgvw yb gsv yirwtv. Rg hslfow yv zm vzhb gzhp gl rtmrgv gsv hvxlmw liy mld gszg dv'iv fk sviv,” Viktor spoke up, spurring Yuuri out of his revere for the view. When he tried to move, however, Yuuri held him back. The pale toon looked at him quizzically and gave his hand another gentle tug. “Ziv blf zoirtsg, Yuuri?”

“Uhm…” Yuuri started hesitantly, eyes flittering back and forth between their hands and Viktor’s face, “I’m sorry I’m stalling,  I just… I want to thank you. Even if you can't understand me. Thank you for helping me, Viktor. I would still be locked in that fortress if it wasn’t for you.”

Viktor looked at him blankly for a moment, completely oblivious to his words. However, his expression softened and his eyes lit up with empathy. The look sent a chill down Yuuri’s spine, but not one of discomfort. For a split second, he believed that Viktor had understood what he was trying to say; he knew, however, that the boy was probably just able to read the intent of his words. 

“Yuuri,” he squeezed his hand tightly, smiling down at him. “Blf xzm’g vevm yvtrm gl rnztrmv sld yzwob R drhs gl fmwvihgzmw blf.”

The horned boy felt a spike of frustration pulse in his head at the language barrier between them, but he didn’t show it. Instead, he blinked back a tear of disappointment and nodded - figuring it was the only thing he could do - with a smile. Viktor copied the action and turned away, tugging Yuuri along with him as they crossed the bridge to reach the other tower. 

A lever was pulled, a light beam was directed into the gate’s sphere, and dark smokey creatures attacked. Another repeat from the other tower. However, the ground had quaked when the incandescent stream made contact with the sphere.

After beating off the squadron of shadows, Yuuri and Viktor peeked through the large opening to see what had happened. The doors were blindingly bright with yellow light for a moment before weakening down to a rich gold-flaked glow. The gate parted slowly.

“Dv wrw rg! Xlnv lm, ovg'h tl!” Viktor, without waiting for Yuuri to catch up, sprinted to the exit of the room. Yuuri followed behind quickly, noting that this tower was a mirror image of the other.making their way out and down the ladder to the torch lit pathway. The flames were ignited and licking at the sky as the two children sprinted as fast as they could down the trail. 

They both came to a comically abrupt stop when they reached the end and stared in awe, marveling at the bridge. This was their way out, their escape route from this looming fortress. They both had worked so hard to get there, and this apparent fool’s errand had become a reality.

Yuuri looked at Viktor, only to find that he had already been staring at the horned boy. Without taking his eyes off of him, Viktor stepped down onto the bridge with one foot. With bated breath, he stepped down with the other. When nothing appeared to crack or shatter, Yuuri also stepped down.

When they were both standing on the bridge, they shared toothy grins with each other. Yuuri couldn’t contain his excitement and let out a cheer of relief, hopping a few times to reassure himself that yes, he was standing on the bridge and yes, it was solid. While this mini celebration happened, Viktor ran a few feet forward and jumped, pumping a fist in the air.

“Yes!” He yelled and turned to look at Yuuri, “We did it! We made it out! I’ve never been outside before! You have to take me with you! I’ll let Yakov know that I’ll be gone for a little bit so that he doesn’t get mad and then we can-”

“Viktor?” Yuuri interrupted him, wide eyed and startled.

“Yuuri? What’s wrong?”

“Viktor… I can understand you,” Yuuri hesitantly revealed, “How can I understand you?”

“Oh... _ oh,”  _ Viktor gasped and grinned before his expression completely fell, “oh, this means  _ I _ can understand you, too. I… I must have been gifted your language.”

“What does that mean?”

“My family is… different. If we learn something, we can pass that knowledge on to someone else if we so choose.” Viktor looked around nervously. “Yakov must have given it to me.”

“Yakov?”

“My uncle!” He clarified, stepping closer to Yuuri, “The man we saw earlier. He doesn’t want me to leave with you… but why would he grant me fluency to communicate with you?” 

“So that  you can say your goodbyes.” 

“YUURI!!”

Yuuri felt something ram into his side and he stumbled. He lost his balance and fell sideways, but instead of hitting the bridge, he continued to fall. He looked up and saw Viktor’s terrified expression and hunched figure as he reached a hand down to grab for him. Looming above the teenager was the cloaked man from earlier - Yakov - who appeared to snap his fingers.

Yuuri watched in horror as the bridge parted in the middle and started to recede back on either side. He watched sick with fear and terrified as Viktor - desperately reaching for him - froze into solid stone. He watched helplessly as the bridge, the castle, Yakov’s black cloaked figure - everything - got smaller and smaller with each passing second. 

Wind whistled past his ears, and the ocean below him roared as he plummeted into its watery mouth. Just before he hit the water, he heard a whisper unsettlingly close to his ear issuing a warning:

“ _ This is your only chance to leave. I suggest you use it, child.” _

The moment he felt cold needles prick into his back, he blacked out. 


	5. Chapter 5

“ _ This is your only chance to leave. I suggest you use it, child.” _

 

When Yuuri woke up, he was lying on his back on the beach. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, but the sun was still in the sky and his skin hadn’t been burned badly. It could have been seconds or minutes.

He sat up stiffly and looked around. He was on the same beach he had been on when the soldiers first brought him to the fortress, and a few meters away was the dock with its boat tied down.  He stood and dusted sand off of himself, looking up at the height he had fallen from.

Impossible. There was no way he could have survived the fall. Had Viktor saved him? He did seem to have an odd connection with the castle and its shadow inhabitants.

_ This is your only chance to leave. _

He froze. The warning ringing clearly in his head. The voice wasn’t Viktors. It belonged to the man who had threatened him earlier. The man who had been cloaked in black, who had turned Viktor into stone. Yakov.

Why would he save him? Wouldn’t it just have been easier to let him die from the impact? Yuuri glanced nervously at the boat. Maybe this was a trap. Maybe there were soldiers waiting for him at the top of the cliff, ready to drag him back. Maybe they were heading down at that very moment

Yakov was taunting him. Allowing him a drop of freedom before shackling him once more into those horrid stone coffins.

_ This is your only chance to leave. I suggest you use it. _

Yuuri wasn’t going to let that happen. He wasn’t going to let them take him back. He could find another route and run. He could use the boat and go somewhere else. He could escape if he thought this through.

But that meant abandoning Viktor. The odd teenager had helped him all throughout their escape through the castle. Sure, he had been a beacon for trouble, painting targets on their backs and useless in fights, but he didn’t leave Yuuri. He did (almost) everything he had been asked to do, he helped Yuuri whenever they were stuck, and he talked to him. They always talked to each other, even though they couldn’t understand each other, and that companionship and familiarity was something Yuuri valued greatly in his granite nightmare.

No. He wouldn’t leave Viktor behind.  Even though there was a horde of shadow creatures after him and a madman that seemed to want them both dead, he wouldn’t abandon him.

Feeling anxious and resolved, he was about to march to the boat and set sail when he realized that he didn’t have access to the fortress. Viktor had been his key into everything; he had parted doors with sparks of light in the palms of his hands. There was no way Yuuri could even get  _ inside  _ the fortress without him, let alone save him.

_ But what about the sword? _

The realization dawned on him and he looked up. Somewhere on the path up the cliff was an entrance into an old guard outpost. If he was lucky, the sword the soldiers used would still be in there. There was, however, the chance that the soldiers had kept the sword on themselves and were waiting to cut him down once he reached the top of the cliff, and that thought was nearly enough to deter him. In that instance, though, he heard a familiar voice in his head, a wisp of a memory.

_ I will be the one to take my life. I will not give them that. _

He steeled himself against his fears, tucking them away for the moment and started up the mountain path. If he were to die today, Yuuri wouldn’t try to deliver his own death once again. He could, however, and would decide how he died, and he wasn’t going to die without trying to save his friend.

He jogged up the path, exhaustion slowly weighing him down the longer he went. He kept looking down every so often at the coast line below, and up at the elevated castle to see the progress he made. He had been so focused on running that he nearly passed the guard post. If it hadn’t been for the ominous black gaping doorway carved into the cliff, he surely would have jogged by it.

Standing before the opening, though, gave him doubts. There was a chance that guards could be waiting inside to slaughter him or drag him back. There was also the possibility that the sword wouldn’t be there and he would have no way of gaining access to the fortress…

He didn’t have any other options, though.

He inhaled deeply and held his breath, walking inside.

It was unsettling at first, but he was able to make out the interior the deeper in he went. The sunlight casted a mysterious shadow over the entrance from the outside, but inside it illuminated the hallway.

And that’s what it was. A hallway. On the walls lined rusted swords and termite-eaten shields, deteriorated bits of armor lay on the ground and faded paintings provided a backdrop for the unused weapons. Yuuri didn’t recognize any of the images - noting the similarities between the ruins outside his old village and the architecture of the buildings that hadn’t completely faded from the images - and hadn’t the slightest clue what the purpose of the elongated room was. Storage? An armory? 

The hallway was only a few meters long, and resting at the end of it was a thick-bricked alter with a red moth-eaten cloth draped over it. On top of the cloth was a familiar sword sheathed in its scabbard. Fate had taken pity on him.

He lifted the weapon, realizing that it was heavier than he originally anticipated. He wielded the sheathed blade with the awkwardness of inexperience, treating it more as a pick axe than a sword, and carefully pulled back the scabbard a few centimeters. He nearly cried with a mixture of relief and terror when he saw the glow of the blade ignite the short corridor in a flood of blue. 

The cracks in the stone gleamed in the dark, the light scattering around like veins under skin. Yuuri heard that same sound again from when the soldiers used the weapon to enter the fortress. That echo of cries that left a buzz in his head and an itch in his eyes. He quickly sheathed the sword once more.

This was his ticket in. He turned and left, adrenaline giving him an burst of energy down the path to the beach. He found the boat quickly enough, tied to the dock in the same manner as when he first arrived, and he boarded it. He tucked the sword under his seat and grabbed the oar. He had helped paddle his neighbor’s boat down the river a few times, but never by himself. He also was never one for steering. 

There was also the unfortunate realization that he didn’t know where to go. He was sure he could make it as far as the area where he attempted to… where he jumped into the water, but then what? Where would he go from there?

He started to paddle anyway. He prayed that he would be able to see any sort of indicator of where he should go once he made it far enough, and he was not disappointed.

Sure enough, once he reached the same area where he had attempted to drown, he could spot a black cave opening carved into the base of the cliff that the fortress stood on. He could feel his arms grow heavy from the amount of effort it was taking to steer the boat, but sighting the only possible entrance into the fortress gave him the motivation he needed to push on. 

He paddled into the cave, discovering that there was another dock 4 meters back. The knot he tied to secure the boat was amateur at best, but it would hold. He hoped it would, at least. 

When he turned he came face to face with a lone shadow figure. The creature was just barely taller than him, gazing at him with it’s head tilted as if to suggest surprise. Perhaps it had been on patrol and stumbled upon Yuuri.

He gripped the sword tightly and gulped. 

“I won’t resist,” he found himself saying. The creature perked at his voice and took a cautious step forward. “You’re looking for me, right? Well… here I am. Take me where I’m supposed to go.”

Silence. He and the creature stared at each other, Yuuri feeling sweat dripping down his neck as the shadow flickered in front of him. 

The creature took another step forward, as if to test whether or not Yuuri would attack. When the boy remained still. The shadow nodded to itself. Before making a vague gesture at the floor space in front of them. A black portal rose from the cracks in the stone, dripping grey mist as a void ate the space between them. The creature motioned once more for Yuuri to step into the portal.

Holding his breath, he quickly walked through the black mass, preventing himself from changing his mind. When he next saw light, it was pooling in from windows placed high on the walls. To his surprise, he was in the throne room. 

He glanced over his shoulder to see if the creature had followed, but he was by himself. There were no portals, no shadows, just a large empty room and coffins lining the walls. 

He scanned his surroundings quickly. There was no way he was actually alone, not with all the effort Yakov had put in trying to hunt him and Viktor down but…. now that he had Viktor…  _ no, he threatened me to stay away. He’d want to keep me out… _

When he finally looked back at the empty throne, he froze. A few yards behind the stone seat was a horrifyingly familiar statue. A stone figure with lanky limbs, long hair, and a expression frozen in fear.

“Viktor!” He found himself shouting and ran to the stone. He dropped to his knees in front of it, the stone clattering on the floor as his hands hovered on either side of his face. “Oh my God… Viktor… I’m so sorry.”

Hot tears welled in his eyes as he gazed with despair at his friend. Whatever curse Yakov had casted on him was far beyond his understanding. All he could assume was that Yakov was the only one who could break it-

_ What a stupid thought… _ he thought bitterly.  _ Viktor is stone… Viktor is dead. _

“I’m sorry!” He whispered, his hands finally making contact with the stone. “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t get you out of here… I swear I’ll stop him. I promise.”

“And how do you expect to do that?” There was a shift in the air. The atmosphere thickened with tension as the voice boomed throughout the throneroom. Yuuri froze in place, knowing all too well who the owner of the voice was.

“You are but a mere child,” footsteps followed, and Yuuri slowly turned to look over his shoulder. He watched the figure cloaked in mist come to a stop a few feet away from him, close to the stoney throne. He calmly placed a hand on the seat’s handrest, his eyes flickering briefly to the sword with interest before returning to their seemingly permanent look of annoyance at the horned boy. “There’s nothing you can do. You should have left when I gave you the chance… but I suppose that was a foolish decision on my part; to think that you were smarter than I initially perceived.” He shook his head, “But you’ve made your choice. The only question now is whether you’ll go back to bed by your own volition or mine.”

Without thinking, Yuuri’s body seemed to move on it’s own as he grabbed the sword and stood. Yakov grinned when he threw the scabbard off, revealing the glowing blade and its ghostly screams. 

“I see… I’ll have to tuck you in myself, then.”


	6. Chapter 6

Yuuri couldn’t remember much of what happened. After he had picked up the sword, time had blurred. 

There had been a lot of movement. A lot of wind, of lights flashing and shadows being pulled in and out like waves. Of his sword repelling invisible forces, being repelled by invisible forces, being thrown out of his hand and clattering across the floor. His body had been subjected to numerous blows by way of shadowed figures and energy. He remembered Yakov’s expression changing, from an annoyed sneer to a frustrated scowl. 

He remembered the sword getting brighter and brighter and Yakov’s form weakening. He remembered the darkness slowly receding from the room the closer he’d get to Yakov’s form. 

And now standing above the crumpled form of his greatest adversary in the fortress, he remembered tripping over an uneven stone and impaling the man mere moments ago.

But he had to do it… he  _ had to do it.  _ He didn’t have a choice, he didn’t…  _ I didn’t have a choice…. _

“You stupid boy…” came a rasp from the man. Yuuri took a step back, his hands cold where he had been holding the sword seconds ago, his heart racing and mind dizzy. “You haven’t the slightest idea of what you’ve done.”

“I couldn’t save Viktor,” Yuuri answered slowly, “but I did stop you.”

“You know nothing,” Yakov spat the words as if they had left a foul taste in his mouth. 

“I know enough,” Yuuri snapped, tears of rage and frustration welling in his eyes. He didn’t want to do this - not at all - but it was his only choice. A glance at Viktor’s stony form was enough to steel his resolve, “I know that you ordered those men to put me in a coffin. I know that there are other kids like me locked away in these walls.”

He took another step away from Yakov, “I know that you locked your own family in a cage! I know you sent demons to try and stop us from escaping! I know you almost killed me and I know _ you killed him! I saw it all happen! _ ”

“Stupid boy,” Yakov repeated, coughing wetly and struggling to sit up. Yuuri scowled but took no pleasure in watching his pain, “seeing isn’t the same as knowing.”

“‘Seeing?’ I lived through it!”

“You saw what you wanted… and jumped to your own conclusions,” he managed to sit upright with his back against the armrest of the throne, “If you wish to kill me, then pull the sword out of my body and be done with it... If you wish to truly know, then I suggest you listen to what I have to say... I am dead either way.”

“How can I know you’re not lying?” He demanded. Yakov sighed heavily and leaned his head against the stone seat as well, eyes closed.

“I have no way of knowing. Perhaps time will tell… perhaps my endeavors were as foolish as I thought… you lose nothing by listening.”

Yuuri hesitated. He didn’t want to listen to this murderer. Nothing he could say would change his mind or redeem his actions. It would all just be the rationalizations of a madman.

He didn’t know what spurred him to listen, though. Maybe it was the fact that he had lost; maybe it was because he looked so human, bleeding out on the ground and all but begging for him to listen. Maybe he needed a ‘why’ for Viktor’s death.

“Speak,” He ordered and sat down, three meters away from his defeated opponent. As Yakov huffed and scrunched his face in pain, Yuuri noticed his robes were no longer as wispy as black smoke. They now appeared to be a dulled black cloth.

“Look at you,” Yakov sneered more with the intent of a grumpy old man than that of a defeated killer, “You win once and suddenly you’re a god. Those who are humble make it farther in life.”

“Practice what you preach,” Yuuri countered quickly. The dying man’s lips twisted into a half smile and he heaved a chuckle.

“I made it this far, didn’t I?” Yuuri remained silent.

“I’ve lived a long time, child. I am ancient, centuries old. My people are natives of this land. We  wielded power that came from the earth and sky, from light and shadow, water and air. As the land flourished, we prospered; when the land suffered, we were weakened. There used to be tribes of us all over the continent… and then the humans settled.

“We once thought we could live in peace with their kind,” He wheezed, “We gifted them land, food, songs. In return they gave us tools and crafts. But their crafting damaged the land, tore forests down, cut into the earth and bled out water. We grew weak and suffered. We tried to reason with them and they did not listen. We tried to slow them, and they quickened their pace. We tried to stop them and they fought back.

“The humans took advantage of our gifts of stories and song - of our history. They learned from us and about us, and crafted a weapon to destroy us. War raged on for centuries and nearly wiped my people to extinction. One by one, tribes fell to the power of the sword and were locked away within its blade,” He paused and looked down at the weapon sticking out of his chest. Carefully, gingerly, he lifted his hand and traced a finger down the metal. Yuuri could hear the haunting echoes of screams at the contact.

“My people… my family is trapped in here. Forced to become one with the weapon that could surely kill us all. Viktor’s parents...my dear friends fell to the blade quickly.”

Yuuri inhaled sharply, glancing at the statue with guilt heavy in his throat.

“Not all of them were monsters. Some of them tried to help us, and suffered death for their sympathy. After the attack on my tribe half a millenia ago, I took Viktor with me and found a new home here…” He looked up at the vaulted ceiling and coughed, “This was meant to be a safe haven for my people, built for us by the Sympathizers. These coffins were not meant for your kind.”

“‘My kind.’” Yuuri repeated back. Yakov looked at him.

“Surely you do not believe you’re human,” He muttered, “Humans don’t have horns. You and your family’s heritage is connected to us; the union made between my people and the humans who settled. With the last of our kind hidden away from the world, who else could they fight against?

“I chose not to pursue the murderers who killed my tribe… I did not want to become them. I did not want to risk the extinction of my heritage and culture. I raised Viktor in this fortress and tried to teach him to harness his powers. With every death, the powers of my people were released back into the land. Even in this weakened state, ravaged by the settlers, there is still too much untamed power. Too volatile.”

“Your people have a story of an earthquake that reduced entire cities into rubble. Some referred to it as the foreboding of an apocalypse…”

The Great Quake was a story Yuuri knew all too well. It was the reason why there were ruins scattered all throughout the forest.

“That year… there was a solar flare-” Yakov fell into a coughing fit, blood spattering onto the blade and his robes, “and Viktor… Viktor was still a child. He could not control it, and I was too weak on my own. He nearly shattered the continent.

“Viktor is young and strong, a beacon for the power left by my people to latch on to. But a child cannot hope to contain it all. That is why I put him to sleep. That is why he was placed in the crate.”

“You locked up a child!”

“I protected Viktor… ” Yakov corrected dully, “I protected the continent. If I had not done that, then he and the earth would have been ripped to shreds by this feral power.”

“After all you’ve done to ‘protect’ him, you killed him anyway!”

“He’s not dead…” Yakov sighed, “The stone will eventually crack. He’s still alive, still conscious… this is merely how my people would discipline a child.”

Yuuri felt his heart soar and his attention snapped to the statue. Viktor was still alive somehow. A tear rolled down his cheek at the revelation.

“He’s alive…” He repeated weakly before looking at Yakov, “What about the coffins? The other children?”

He inhaled deeply, clearing his throat a few times and shifted his shoulders. “I will be brief… I can’t delay the inevitable for much longer.

“With Viktor asleep and my mind against murder, I needed a productive way to spend my time. I would not wake Viktor up until he was ready to control his power, and only then would I do so when the world was ready for him. But when people like you - children like you - became the target of these humans, I could not leave it be. We share blood, after all.

“It had been a few years after the slaughter of the youths started before I was ready to step in. These aren’t coffins…” he gestured to the walls of the room, to the capsules and pods carved of stone, “these are beds. All of the children in here are asleep… they, too, will be woken when the world is ready to accept them.

“The soldiers are the humans that descended from the Sympathizers. They share this vision with me, and in a show of good will have given me the blade that has annihilated my people,” He made a weak gesture to the protruding sword in his chest, “as a symbol of trust… I let them keep it.”

“That’s not possible! When you leave children -  _ anyone -  _ in coffins like those, they will starve! They will die!” Yuuri insisted, “Even if you’re telling the truth about my family - our families - they’re still human! They need food and water and-”

“With Viktor asleep, I couldn’t let that energy build,” Yakov continued quietly, forcing Yuuri to silence himself if he wanted to listen, “I directed that power into the beds in order to sustain their lives. When you broke your bed, you disrupted the flow of energy… I feared that you had ceased that flow when you woke Viktor up. My wards remained intact, however… the children are still asleep.”

“But stories of the children being killed and buried…”

“Lies I had the soldiers spread.”

“But the people who didn’t want to give up their kids! What about-”

“They are safer here.” His voice was far raspier now, “... they are safe when they are believed to be dead.”

“I… I don’t believe you.”

“And I cannot make you.”

Yuuri was at a loss for words. If anything Yakov had said was true - any of it - then Yuuri… then he would have killed a good man. But there was no definite way to prove if he was right. Only time could tell… or a coffin. But what if Yakov was right? What if he opened one and it disrupted everything he had done to ensure that the children lived? What if all of that power flooded back to Viktor and overwhelmed him?

Viktor could die… the children could die… the continent could shatter…

“I… I don’t know if I should believe you.”

“That is your choice to make,” When Yuuri looked back at him, he saw that Yakov had both hands on the hilt of the sword. Adrenaline pumped through his veins at the sight and he stood.

“Wait a second!”

“I am done waiting for death.”

“No, please! Stop!”

“I have nothing more to say.” Yakov looked at the statue, expression softening, and murmured, “R’n hliib, Viktor. R wrw dszg R xlfow.”

He yanked the sword out of his chest. At the movement, Yuuri cried out and scrambled to get up. A blue light radiated from the blade and quickly engulfed Yakov’s form. When Yuuri got close, he was blasted away by a surge of energy and sent flying into the wall. Upon impact, he bashed his head against the stone and crumpled into a heap on the ground.

When he looked up, his glasses dislodged somewhere on the floor, he could barely make out the smudged shape of horns lying on the ground. Dizzly, he reached up and felt for his horns, only to find jagged stumps where they should have been. Beyond the broken appendages, he could make out the glowing blue silhouette of a man being sucked into the blade of the sword.

Another pulse of energy shot out, slamming Yuuri against the wall once again. His vision faded upon impact and his hearing soon followed after. In his last conscious moments of darkness, he could make out the muffled sounds of stone cracking, wood splintering, and the collected shrieks of an entire species.

But piercing through the chaos of noise came the anguished cry of a helpless, scared boy.


	7. Chapter 7

When Yuuri woke up, it was to the sounds of waves lapping against the beach. He shifted, wood groaning underneath his stiff form from the movement.

Wait…

Wood?

He sat up straight, the sudden jolt making him light headed and causing his vision to swim. He felt something brush his hand and he instinctively reached out to grab it, quickly realizing by the shape that it was his glasses.  He shoved them on and blinked blindly against the setting sun for a moment before taking in his surroundings.

He was in a boat similar to - if not the same as – the one he had arrived in.  He hopped out of the boat and looked at the castle, reeling back in horror at what he saw.

It was gone. The fortress was gone and in its place towered a pile of rubble and wood. Even the giant cliff it had been built upon was reduced to boulders and rock. Scattered throughout the shallows were segments of bridges, chunks of rooms, and shards of pillars sticking straight out of the water. There was the occasional glint of glass and metal against the setting sun, and seagulls had already begun to perch and nest atop the debris.

Yuuri didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know how he possibly could have  _ survived _ this wreck, let alone remain unconscious through it. He looked at the breach and gasped when he saw a coffin half a yard away.

He ran to it and pried it open, surprised at how easy it had been. The hinges to the stone opening groaned and its intricate carvings gleamed once more before fading away to its original dull color. Inside the capsule was a young boy, around 4 years old, with pale blond hair to his shoulders and the beginning of what appeared to be buck antlers.

Yuuri hauled him out of the pod and placed him on the sand, high enough on the beach to avoid high tide and in the shadow of a cliff. When he looked up and surveyed the rest of the coast, he was stunned to see that tens of pods were littered on the sand. Each was in shockingly pristine condition and opened easily to his touch.

He was in the middle of dragging a boy his age with thick black eyebrows and bull horns to the group of unconscious children when he spotted one of the boys sitting up. The dark skinned teen with antlers similar to that of a moose was blinking blearily and looking around confused. When he spotted Yuuri, he seemed to immediately wake up and jumped to his feet to help.

“Oh no! Are you alright?” He asked, concern etched into his expression as he helped bring the boy into the cliff’s shade. He positioned his head so that his horns wouldn’t bump anyone else’s before looking up at Yuuri. “What happened?”

“Long story,” Yuuri answered, tears welling when he realized he was able to understand this boy. Yes, the words he used and the way he talked sounded exactly like the elders of the village, but all that did was date  _ when _ he was put into the coffin. However…

That meant Yakov had been telling the truth.

Yuuri felt like his soul had been shattered. Not only had he killed someone, but he had been a good man. He had tried to help Yuuri and many other children like him. He tried to help his nephew and protect the continent, all without anyone ever knowing.

Yuuri started to cry and furiously wiped at his eyes. He shouldn’t think about this now, there were still so many pods to open, so many children to help, but the revelation petrified him.

“Are you alright?” His new companion asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. Yuuri quickly shrugged him off and turned, heading out to help more children out of the pods. The boy quickly caught up to him but refrained from touching him again. “Hey, is everything okay?”

“We need to get the others out,” Yuuri told him, his voice weak from the effort it was taking to swallow down a scream, “They’re in the pods. Get the ones closest to the water first before the tides come in.”

“Okay.” Upon hearing that there were more people needing help, the stranger dropped the subject and rushed ahead to a capsule near the water. 

Together, the two boys fetched the rest of the children out of their stone prisons – beds, Yuuri corrected himself more than once at the cost of a stab of guilt – and managed to do a headcount of 44 children ranging between the apparent ages of 7 to 12. The blond toddler had been the youngest of the group.

“Do you think we should double check to see if we find anymore?” Phichit – who had given his name in passing earlier – asked after his third headcount.

“Uhm… yes,” he agreed, “there might be some in the rubble. Don’t go swimming since it’s too late, but make a note of them and we’ll get them in the boat.”

“Boat?”

“Yes,” Yuuri gestured absently to the left where he had woken up as he scrutinized the pods on the beach, making sure each one was open and empty, “There’s a boat.”

“Good. I’ll look over here.” Yuuri hummed in acknowledgement and diverged to the right, looking closely for any signs of life or closed pods.

It was nighttime and the moon wasn’t very bright. He was about to determine that they were all empty when he spotted a hunched figure crawling out of a pod that had been thrown against the side of a cliff and crashed onto the beach below. When Yuuri first saw the pod, he thought it had been damaged too badly for anyone to be inside it, let alone survive. There had been a great number of empty pods along the beach so he didn’t think the idea to be too farfetched.

Yuuri ran as fast as he could to the crawling person, noticing familiar features on the teen as he got closer. It wasn’t until the figure looked up at the moon that Yuuri realized who it was.

“Viktor!” He screamed, launching himself at the boy when he was within range. They both tumbled into a pile on the sand, clinging to each other tightly and repeating each other’s names over and over again.

“Yuuri!”

“Viktor, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!!” He cried, burying his face into Viktor’s chest. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea!”

“Shh, Yuuri, you didn’t know,” he hummed, his own tears wetting Yuuri’s hair and temple.

“Viktor, I’m so sorry!”

“I didn’t know either, Yuuri, it’s okay.” He pulled back and looked at Yuuri, who had now noticed that the older boy was crying as well. “I tried to save them. I caused the earthquake but I tried to save them. I tried to save you too.”

“You did.”

“How many?” He asked, looking desperate, “How many are there?”

Yuuri hesitated, unsure of what the number was supposed to be. “… 45. One of them woke up and helped me. He’s looking around for more.”

Viktor closed his eyes and crumpled into Yuuri’s arms. “I tried to save them all! I tried, but there were so many of them! I didn’t know what to do, Yuuri, there were too many!”

“Viktor-”

“I tried! I’m so sorry! I’m sorry!” Viktor heaved in his arms, clinging onto Yuuri tightly as if he was stranded in the ocean with a wooden log.  He cried like a man unfamiliar with the emotion. Yuuri held onto him just as tightly, sobbing from the pressure of guilt and blame

He didn’t know who was the first to say it or how long they had been there, but he and Viktor found themselves gulping mouthfuls of air, wet cheeked and puffy eyed with the mantra “We’ll be alright, it’ll be alright” chanted over and over again in reassurance to each other.

It’ll be alright.

We’ll be alright.

One day it would; for now, though, they would have to dig themselves out of their rubble before they could reach higher ground. 


	8. Epilogue

**11 years later.**

The girl first came at the tender age of 14, bringing with her a cart full of produce and woodworks for trade. She made regular monthly visits, but the people thought her to be an odd creature during her first few appearances. A child emerging alone from out of the woods? There were fairy tales that warned against such people, yet here she was, bringing with her official documents from both their village – signed and sealed by the leader of the town, Toshiya Katsuki – and her own. It was a place no one there had ever heard of, but her stock looked fresh and the wood pieces sturdy. The prices were fair and times were tough. She became a welcomed sight soon after.

Takeshi Nishigori had been infatuated with her the moment he saw her and they became friends quickly. She –  _ Yuuko _ , as she would later introduce herself once he worked up the courage to talk to her – was always kind and welcoming, giving his mother a free bag of apples whenever she would buy from her selection. A lot of the other boys could also see this kindness in her, as well as her round brown eyes and pretty face. Boys much older than him, boys the same age as her. He didn’t stand a chance being one year her junior.

His mother, however, didn’t raise him to quit without trying. When she had been 15, and he 14, he confessed to her that he liked her –  _ a lot _ – and proposed the idea of a relationship. The words had been stuttered and fumbled a few times, he had been sweating and scared, and the answer he received wasn’t a ‘yes.’ However, it also wasn’t a ‘no,’ either, but a vague and simple ‘not yet.’

The next year, he learned the reason why. Her own town deemed her to be old and responsible enough to leave and live on her own, if she so desired. She had been 16 then, carrying with her a small bag containing her worldly possessions, a hiking stick, and wearing a new pair of shoes. His mother employed her in their shop immediately, and the girl had enough money – a gift from her old home – to buy a small hut for herself. When he asked her the same question again (with more confidence this time) she had replied ‘yes.’ Her bright smile and blush-tinted cheeks became the prettiest sight he had ever seen.

This happened three years ago. Time passed and he turned 18, a man by the standards of his village, while she was a year older at 19.

It had been his mother’s idea to leave. Not permanently, thankfully, but to go on a short trip. He was an adult now and needed to go out and see some of the world. He would have many years to travel and explore, as well as time to raise money to fund such excursions, but at that moment, a visit to his fiancé’s hometown was a must.

Yuuko had been ecstatic at the idea and began packing immediately. Within a few days, the two were ready to go with a sturdy cart loaded with their bags, food, and gifts for her town. Even the Mayor had come to personally see them off, with his daughter giving Yuuko a letter to give to her old village leader.

The trip itself took a week by horse. They passed through 2 other towns to restock supplies and explore. Each time, Yuuko would scan through the vendors to see if she knew any of them, but there was never any success. It wasn’t until their seventh day on the road that she spotted familiar faces.

Two boys and a girl were seated on a cart passing by. The girl and one of the boys, both with dark complexions and bright violet eyes, were sitting up front with one handling the horse’s reins. The other was seated behind them in the cart, carefully positioned so as not to ruin their products. Nishigori knew that the boy holding the reins was Mickey, who had taken over the trade between Yuuko’s home village and his town.

The moment Yuuko spotted them, she had screeched and jumped from their own cart.

“Sara! Mickey!” She yelled while she ran to them. Nishigori halted their horse and watched his fiancé’s joy with fond amusement (as well as the startled recognition on the faces of the three travelers).

After hugging the two, she spotted the third and nearly flung herself at him, “Emil! Your  _ head! _ ”

“I know!” He yelled back, sounding equally pleased and excited as he hugged her.

“When did this happen?!” She demanded, pulling away and stepping back so that she could look at all three.

“A year ago,” the girl – Sara – grinned and gestured to the other boy, “Mickey’s been bitter about it ever since.”

“He gets to come with us everywhere now,” Mickey bemoaned, “I thought you left for good.”

“Oh! I’m coming back to visit!” She looked over her shoulder at her lover and blushed, her broad smile still in place, “Everyone, this is my fiancé, Takeshi Nishigori.”

“Nishigori!” The three exclaimed in unison, excited to hear the name.

“It’s nice to finally meet you,  _ Nishigori! _ ” Sara cheered, emphasizing his last name with the same amusement Yuuko had upon their first meeting, “How long will you be staying?”

“Two weeks at the very least,” He answered when Yuuko looked at him.

“Oh, please stay for three! We want to officially meet you when we come back, not do a quick hello like this!”

“Yes, we’re already in a hurry because  _ someone  _ kept forgetting their shoes.”

“I overslept, you must forgive me at some point in time. It happened hours ago!” Emil whined.

“How does one forget to wear shoes?! Do you not feel the mud and gravel between your toes? Are your feet numb?!”

“Please ignore them, they’re always fighting,” Sara shrugged with amusement, “but Mickey is right, we started late and have to make up for lost time as soon as we can.”

“How far out are we from the town?”

“Another hour or so.”

“Oh my, you certainly are behind schedule.”

“You can thank  _ this _ idiot.”

“Yuuko, come back! He’s been nothing but cruel to me ever since you left!”

“He’s always been cruel to you,” Yuuko laughed and took a few more steps away from the cart.

“That’s because he never learns,” Mickey sighed deeply and cracked the reins, spurring their horse into action.

“Get home safely! Try to stay for three weeks if you can!” Sara yelled as she waved from the cart in passing.

“Goodbye!” Yuuko waved back as the three echoed the sentiment. With Nishigori’s help, she climbed back into the cart and squeezed his hand tightly before taking the reins.

“I’m so excited! We’re almost there!”

“How old were they?” He asked once their own horse started moving, “Sara and Emil looked awfully young.”

“Emil is the youngest actually. He’s 14,” She said, “Sara and Mickey are actually twins. They’re 18.”

“Did they choose to stay in your village then?” He asked, “Did they not want to leave?”

She bit her lip and mulled over the question, “Well… it’s not all that simple. In your town, you became an adult when you turn 18. That’s how it is in most towns.”

“Isn’t it 16 for you?” She shook her head in response.

“You leave when the leaders decide you’re ready to leave.”

Nishigori gaped. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“How do they know? Is there some sort of test?”

“No, they… I don’t know. They just  _ know _ when you’re ready. We’ve had some people who got as old as 25 before they were deemed ready to leave.”

“They must have been annoyed.”

“At first, they were. When they came back to visit, though, they admitted that they were glad to have waited as long as they did.”

“How young was the youngest to leave?”

“16,” She glanced at him and smiled, “Me.”

Nishigori smiled with pride, leaning over to peck her cheek. “So, we’re an hour away?”

“Yes.”

“We could probably make it there sooner. This horse is young and strong.” Her smile widened ever so slightly and she cracked the reins.

 

* * *

 

He was right. They arrived much sooner than anticipated.

The first signs of life he was able to make out were two guard posts in the distance. The forest around them was dense with the branches above creating a thick canopy of leaves, blocking a majority of the sunlight. It appeared that Yuuko’s people had settled in a clearing, however, and there were men posted at the road’s entrance to monitor who came in and out.

Yuuko came to a halt and withdrew from her pouch in the cart a small bronze medallion. One of the soldiers approached and greeted her, taking from her the item to inspect. As he did so, Nishigori was able to get a good look at him.

His face was obscured by a helmet, one that had horns sprouting out from either side. He was dressed in chainmail and a few pieces of plate armor, but was able to move around easily enough. Attached to his hip was a wooden baton, and Nishigori was able to immediately recognize where he had seen the familiar armor.

They were the soldiers who took the horned children away.

“Welcome back, Yuuko.” He greeted and handed the medallion to her. Nishigori noticed there was a seal of some sort imprinted into the bronze with her name written underneath it.

“Thank you.” She smiled and spurred the horse to move once more. Passing through the guard posts, Nishigori could see that they were still 5 minutes away from the town. It’s stone and wood structures pierced out of the ground, the buildings looking similar to the ones in his own town. It appeared very normal.

What wasn’t normal, though, were those guards.

“Why are those soldiers here?” He asked once they were far enough away not to be overheard.

“Hm?” She looked at him and glanced behind them before realization dawned on her face. “ _ Oh, _ you mean them.”

“Yes,” He also looked back once more, “Why are they here? Is there a child about to have his 12 th birthday? Have they not lost their horns yet?”

“Oh, there are many children who still have their horns here.” She clarified, “Many over 12. A majority of towns still believe in that nonsense about children with horns being demons or monsters. Yours doesn’t – not any more, at least. Many people are stuck in their old ways of thinking, and many send their children away when they’re 2 or 3 if they still have their horns.”

“What?!”

“The soldiers bring them here so that we can look after them. The simple truth is that the horns aren’t permanent. It just takes some people longer than others for them to eventually fall off.” She smiled sadly, “I was sent away when I was 11. My horns fell off when I turned 14.”

“And the soldiers…”

“Yes, they know. They’re actually Sympathizers. Centuries of children being taken by these soldiers haven’t resulted in their deaths. That is what the people want, though, and that is what the soldiers let them think.”

“So, all this time… they’ve been brought here?”

“… Yes. They have.” As they came closer to town, Nishigori realized that a majority of the people there still had horns on their heads. Many were children and teenagers, with a few young adults scattered here and there.

“Is this why people leave the town at different times? When your horns fall off, then you can go?”

“It does play a factor. When your horns fall off, then you can travel to other villages, like what Sara, Mickey, and Emil do. But the people here have all had very different experiences when it came to living as a horned child in their old towns. Some harbor resentment, others fear, but all have lost trust in the outside world. The leaders don’t let us leave until that trust is rebuilt.” She shifted in her seat, “I have no doubt that Emil will be ready to leave soon, but for Mickey… he needs more time. And Sara won’t go anywhere until her brother is ready, too.”

“Yuuko!” A young girl with bright red hair and gold horns called out. Yuuko stopped the horse and dismounted from the cart, rushing to greet the younger child with a hug.

“Mila! Hello!”

“When we heard you were coming to visit, we all got so excited! I’m so happy to see you again!” She beamed and looked over her shoulder at Nishigori. “Are you her man?”

He laughed, “Yes, I am.”

“Nishigori! It’s nice to finally meet you!”

“This is Mila,” Yuuko introduced, “She’s like a younger sister to me.”

“I’ll go tell Yuuri you’re here!”

“Where’s Yurio?”

Mila raised an eyebrow, “Where do you think?” She turned and jogged away toward a large house that appeared to be a community building. When Yuuko looked at him, he raised an eyebrow and jumped down from the cart to walk to her.

“Am I doomed to be referred to by my last name for the rest of my life?”

“Yes,” She grinned, “Many of us don’t have last names, so we’re always happy to hear them.”

“Guang Hong, Leo, take their cart to one of the guest houses and unload their things. Phichit, follow them and take the horse to the stables. Seung Gil, could you please alert the cooks that our guests have arrived?” Nishigori turned and saw three horned teenagers approaching the cart. They all chimed “Hi, Yuuko” as they climbed up and seated themselves behind the reins and in the back with their things before prompting the horse to move. In their passing, Yuuko managed to snatch her pouch from the cart and sling it over her shoulder.

Both turned to address the speaker and Yuuko squealed. She tossed her bag to Nishigori and ran at the newcomer.

“Viktor!”

“Yuuko! It’s been ages!” When they hugged, he lifted her and spun her around a few times. Nishigori noticed the heavy accent in his words as he shouldered his fiancé’s bag. When she was placed back on her feet and stepped away, he was able to get a better look at the stranger.

Tall, pale, foreign. Blue eyed and grey haired. A young adult, seemingly older than himself by a few years. Nishigori hadn’t seen anyone like him before. He jerked his head to shift his fringe out of his face. It was one of the most graceful actions he had ever seen.

“Nishigori, this is Viktor. He’s one of the leaders of the town.” She grinned at him widely, practically vibrating with excitement. “He’s like a father to me.”

“Oh, please no!” He whined and nudged her, “Brother! I am like a brother!”

“Nope.”

“That makes me feel so old!”

“You are old.” He gasped dramatically, and hand placed to his chest. He looked at Nishigori and gestured to her.

“See? These are her true colors, are you sure you still want to be with her?” Nishigori relaxed noticeably, feeling a sudden weight lifted off of his shoulders. It was as sudden as it seemed magical, but he figured it was the light-hearted joking between the two that did it. In the three seconds of meeting this ‘father figure’ of hers, he could tell they would get along.

“With all of my heart,” he responded with a smirk, “even if she is abusive and mean. Who else would take her?”

“We refuse to take her back. She is your problem now,” Viktor stepped forward with a heart shaped grin and bowed slightly. “It’s nice to meet you, Nishigori. We’ve heard so much about you.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too. Thank you for hosting us.”

“Of course! I always love company.” Nishigori felt something tug at his pant leg. When he looked down, he saw two dogs, one small brown poodle with the cloth in its mouth and another large grey poodle with a dopey grin on its face.

“Ah! My children!” He approached and picked up the smaller dog nibbling on the pant leg, “This is Vicchan and the other is Makkachin.”

“Hello,” He greeted and scratched the grey one behind the ear.

“If these two are here, then Yuuri is sure to be nearby.”

Another squeal erupted from Yuuko and she dashed behind them. When Nishigori turned to look, he saw her embracing a man with jet black hair and brown ram-like horns jutting out from either temple. They curled around, looking every bit impressive as they were large. Beside them was a blond teenager with antlers that appeared to grow up instead of out. He had an annoyed scowl on his face, but his eyes betrayed his fondness.

Yuuko released him and pulled the blond into a bear hug. “Other leader! Yuuri Katsuki!” She yelled over the younger boy’s protests and pointed at him with her foot. “The one screaming is Yurio!”

“That’s not my name!” He pouted and continued to struggle weakly against her. The name of the other leader dawned on Nishigori, as well as the similarities of his appearance with another Katsuki that he knew of.

“Do you have a sister?”

“Oh, yes! You’re from Hasetsu!” He smiled brightly as he approached and bowed. “Yes, Mari is my sister. How is she?”

“She’s well.” Nishigori quickly bowed back, “She’s training to take over the position of Mayor from your father. The ceremony should happen within a few months.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” With the puppy tucked under his arm, Viktor stood next to Yuuri and wrapped an arm around his waist. Yuuri reciprocated the action by doing the same.

“Come, you must be exhausted from your travels. We have food being prepared, but please join us for a drink in the meantime.”

“Thank you,” he glanced over at the other two. Yuuko finally released ‘Yurio’ and quickly joined Nishigori, linking her hand with his.

“Yes, let’s go! We have so much to catch up on!”

“And I’m sure you have much to tell us.” Yuuri laughed in a reserved manner, but his joy was tangible.

As the group walked to the community building and Yuuko chatted about the journey, the blond ‘Yurio’ stood beside Nishigori and glared up at him.

“My name is Yuri, not ‘Yurio.’” He corrected venomously, “You may have all of these idiots fooled, but not me. I’m watching you, Nishigori.”

“Now, Yurio, that’s no way to make friends.” Both jumped at the sudden appearance of Viktor at Yuri’s side, puppy still in his arms.

“Stop doing that, old man!” Yuri shouted and stomped away to stand next to Yuuri. Viktor laughed and nudged his shoulder against Nishigori’s as if they were old friends.

“How did you do that?” Nishigori found himself asking. Viktor pursed his lips and shrugged.

“Magic.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fauks: When it came to choosing which prompt I wanted to do for the Reverse Big Bang, I immediately zeroed in on Vail's artwork. Not only were her images intriguing and beautiful, but the inspiration behind them also captured my interest. Even before pairs were handed out, I immediately went to work researching the ICO game: watching let's plays, googling maps, reading trivia, etc. I was so happy to be paired up with her and I wouldn't ever trade a partnership with her for anyone else!   
> She truly has the patience of a saint and a keen eye. I was always delayed and sloppy with my writing - I had even gone around a month without giving her anything - and she never once got mad at me even though she had every right! She was quick to catch any mistakes that (if this had been a solo project) I probably would have missed and also enlightened me about a few writing and grammatical tips that I never knew or forgot. Seriously, Vail, it was such an honor to work with you! Thank you for putting up with my shenanigans and radio silence. You deserved a much better author and I hope I did your art justice.   
> PS i'm a piece of shit writer that should have had all of this done months ago! so sorry! i don't deserve your forgiveness, i was truly busy and irresponsible :(


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